Existence and Existents

Existence and Existents was written mostly during Levinas's imprisonment in World War II, and provides the first sketch of his mature thought -- later developed in Totality and Infinity and Otherwise Than Being, or Beyond Essence (also published by Duquesne University Press). Levinas's project in Existence and Existents is to move from anonymous existence to the emergence of subjectivity; to subjectivity's practice, theory and morality; to its encounter with the alterity of the other person. He is concerned here primarily with the time of the solitary subject; time is the inner structure of subjectivity, of the movement of existing. Existence and Existents introduces the major themes and concerns that occupied Levinas throughout his career. It is essential reading for understanding both Levinas's own philosophy and the developments in philosophical thought in the twentieth century.