I guess I found another like-minded philosopher. It's very interesting (and also very fortunate) how I've arrived at 'my way' without having had the kind of experiences that this very interesting human had. I find this view fascinating! -Conference Questions Ethics, Poses Alternatives- Last year, the North American Levinas Society's first conference attracted scholars from every continent ... except for Antarctica. "We're working on it," joked Michael Paradiso-Michau, a graduate student in the English and Philosophy program and one of the Society's founders. Their conference this year, "Levinas and Community," is scheduled for June 10-12 at the Purdue Memorial Union. An even larger turnout is expected, including mathematicians, philosophers, historians, professors and even members of the Levinas family. Emmanuel Levinas was a 20th century Jewish thinker who wrote one of his major books while imprisoned for eight months in a concentration camp before finally escaping with the help of another philosopher during World War II. "The Society is devoted to trying to keeping Levinas on the academic map and to promote interest for his philosophies," Michau said. Michau also said it was rare for this sort of group to grow so quickly but that there had been a heightened interest in the philosopher recently. Levinas was a continental philosopher and differed greatly from typical Western philosophy by declaring the most important aspect of life was ethics; primarily the responsibility of face-to-face relationships and a respect for the other person, even above yourself. "Basically, he encouraged cooperation rather than competition, which is drastically against most American ideals and politics," said Sol Neely, also an English and Philosophy graduate student and one of the Society's founders. "Levinas brought religious language; hope, faith, belief, morality; as a correction to secular politics, which relies on an indifference to the problems of others," he said. "(His philosophy) implies a necessary self-sacrifice for others." Neely said according to Levinas: "If I don't care for the suffering poor, then who will?" Levinas proposed an alternative to ideas such as "all against all" and survival of the fittest. "He said that if (those ideas) were natural, then ethics was unnatural. And if that is true, then all sorts of daily beliefs begin to break down," Neely said. "So he concluded that ethics was, in fact, natural and those other ideas unnatural and wrong." From there, the theories call for a sort of ethical revolution by individuals rather than the mass movements of political parties. "It's important to talk to people," said Neely, "rather than yelling at them over everyone else." Individual sessions of the conference are free and open to the campus and community, though registration is encouraged. More information and a detailed schedule may be found at http://ift.tt/1mCx8XM.

I guess I found another like-minded philosopher. It's very interesting (and also very fortunate) how I've arrived at 'my way' without having had the kind of experiences that this very interesting human had. I find this view fascinating! -Conference Questions Ethics, Poses Alternatives- Last year, the North American Levinas Society's first conference attracted scholars from every continent ... except for Antarctica. "We're working on it," joked Michael Paradiso-Michau, a graduate student in the English and Philosophy program and one of the Society's founders. Their conference this year, "Levinas and Community," is scheduled for June 10-12 at the Purdue Memorial Union. An even larger turnout is expected, including mathematicians, philosophers, historians, professors and even members of the Levinas family. Emmanuel Levinas was a 20th century Jewish thinker who wrote one of his major books while imprisoned for eight months in a concentration camp before finally escaping with the help of another philosopher during World War II. "The Society is devoted to trying to keeping Levinas on the academic map and to promote interest for his philosophies," Michau said. Michau also said it was rare for this sort of group to grow so quickly but that there had been a heightened interest in the philosopher recently. Levinas was a continental philosopher and differed greatly from typical Western philosophy by declaring the most important aspect of life was ethics; primarily the responsibility of face-to-face relationships and a respect for the other person, even above yourself. "Basically, he encouraged cooperation rather than competition, which is drastically against most American ideals and politics," said Sol Neely, also an English and Philosophy graduate student and one of the Society's founders. "Levinas brought religious language; hope, faith, belief, morality; as a correction to secular politics, which relies on an indifference to the problems of others," he said. "(His philosophy) implies a necessary self-sacrifice for others." Neely said according to Levinas: "If I don't care for the suffering poor, then who will?" Levinas proposed an alternative to ideas such as "all against all" and survival of the fittest. "He said that if (those ideas) were natural, then ethics was unnatural. And if that is true, then all sorts of daily beliefs begin to break down," Neely said. "So he concluded that ethics was, in fact, natural and those other ideas unnatural and wrong." From there, the theories call for a sort of ethical revolution by individuals rather than the mass movements of political parties. "It's important to talk to people," said Neely, "rather than yelling at them over everyone else." Individual sessions of the conference are free and open to the campus and community, though registration is encouraged. More information and a detailed schedule may be found at http://ift.tt/1mCx8XM. -