Part of finishing up this semester is preparing for next semester. For me, that means filling out my senior study proposal and submitting two applications for an independent study. I still haven’t done the proposal yet, but I’m just about done with one of my applications. It’s for an independent study on Emmanuel Levinas’ Totality and Infinity. As part of the application, I wrote that I would compose daily responses to the text and post them on my blog.

With that being said, and contrary to the fact that I know none of y’all will want to take me up on the offer, I’d like to invite anyone who is interested to read the book along with me. The independent study is going to take place over my Winter Break, so you’re only “committing” yourself to about a month’s worth of reading.

Before you dismiss the idea out of hand, let me provide you with some links that will give you some more information on the man and his work. The reading won’t start until just after New Year’s, so take your time, have a look, and, if you’re interested, go buy the book.

I don’t want to mislead you, however, so let me say the book is incredibly difficult and incredibly dense. He’s talking about things at such a fundamental level that the language he uses to talk about it has to be incredibly abstract, which, in itself, is weird, especially when we think of “abstract” as being on a high level and “fundamental” as being at the lowest level possible. Is the fact that we can only use abstract language to inquire into the fundamental nature of being motivate a circular understanding of the universe? Hmm…

It’s stoner-type thoughts like these that you too will recieve from reading Levinas. And you won’t even need to ruin your lungs to get them. And the book only costs $24, which is much cheaper than most eighths that you find nowadays, right?

Oh, and for my Jewish friends out there, Levinas was one of the foremost Jewish philosophers of modern times. As it reads in his obituary (link below):

Rabbi Leon Klenicki praised the French philosopher’s “search for the meaning of Judaism after Auschwitz.” He “was able to unite Talmudic wisdom and phenomenology in a unique contribution,” said Rabbi Klenicki, a leading participant in dialogues between Jews and Christians.

Anyway, if you are at all interested, or even if you just want to know a little more so that you can find something valuable in all the Levinas-inspired posts that’ll be popping up here in a month’s time, here are a list of relevant links. I really do hope you will join in the reading. It will be a serious mind fuck. Here are the links:

• His Obituary in the NY Times (Dec. 27, 1995)
• The Back Cover of Totality and Infinity
• Introducing Levinas to Undergraduate Philosophers, by Anthony Beavers
• Emmanuel Levinas: Where Philosophy and Jewish Ethics Meet, by Tam K. Parker
• Find more links via Google

Again, I can only hope that you’ll choose to join in the reading.