The American Institute for Levinassian Studies (AILS) intends to extend to this side of the Atlantic the activities of the French Institut d’Études Lévinassiennes (http://www.levinas.fr/). Initially created in Israel in 2000 by French philosophers, at the initiative of Benny Lévy, the Institut moved to Paris in 2004. Its president, Christian Grusq, is now launching its American “branch.” On the mo
del of the French institution, the AILS proposes to offer to an American public an annual series of seminars, a forum of discussion, local events, and electronic access to a date base of philosophical documentation. If the figure of Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) is the starting point of the Institute, the AILS is not meant to be a university institute devoted to the scholarly study of his theses and his work. The main interest of the Institute is that of a living thought and not a cult of the dead, of an unfolding thought in the making. This thought production will be made possible in the US as in France by an annual series of seminars on the same theme given by a variety of thinkers from highly different backgrounds. The intent is to avoid accepted readings, without sacrificing rigor. We would be working around Levinas and not on him - and the flexibility offered by this "around" is immense. The Content:
The working themes would be provided by a selection of readings by specialists of Levinas or by excerpts from Levinas. They can be treated with the greatest freedom, even in relation to the thematic context from which they arise. This would be the meaning we give to the adjective "levinassian" which describes the kind of studies conducted within the Institute. All topics treated would therefore assume a somewhat quirky character in relation to what one might expect to find even in a symposium on this thinker. We believe in this quirkiness. The annual issue of the Cahiers d’Études Lévinassiennes, published in Paris, would be dedicated in part to the publication of seminars’ contributions, both from France and from the Americas. For Information:
Cahiers d’Études Lévinassiennes
The journal, les Cahiers d’Études Lévinassiennes (“Journal of Levinassian Studies”), created in 2002, has a dual purpose:
- To constitute a resonance chamber of what is presented at the Institute, to expand the circle of listeners.
- To become the publication of reference for levinassian studies from an academic and a non-academic point of view. It was the first journal - and for a long time the only one- in the world dedicated to the philosopher. The journal is one of the most original in the field of French philosophical pubications, because it publishes at the same time both well-known scholars and unknown authors. The only criterion of publication is an interesting, powerful, and new voice. In their 13 years of existence, the Cahiers have become a reference. They are found in every major university libraries, and have subscribers in many countries of the world (its UCLA’s Library of Congress call number is B2430.L484 A135).
