The “Ethical Anthropic Principle” and the Religious Ethics of Levinas

Why did Levinas choose Isaiah 45:7 (“I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all that”) as a superscription of his essay on evil? This article explores the role of evil in Levinas's religious ethics. The author discusses the structure of evil as revealed phenomenologically and juxtaposes it...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of religious ethics
Main Author: Nuyen, A. T. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Wiley-Blackwell 2001
In: Journal of religious ethics
Online Access: Volltext (JSTOR)
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Summary:Why did Levinas choose Isaiah 45:7 (“I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all that”) as a superscription of his essay on evil? This article explores the role of evil in Levinas's religious ethics. The author discusses the structure of evil as revealed phenomenologically and juxtaposes it to the structure of subjectivity found in the writings of Levinas. The idea of the “ethical anthropic principle”, modeled upon the cosmic anthropic principle, is then used to link evil to the responsibility of the subject. The link is subsequently extended to God. This is proposed as one way of understanding the meaning of Isaiah 45:7.
ISSN:1467-9795
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religious ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/0384-9694.00091