On November 11, from 3 to 4:30 p.m. in Room 207, visiting professor Richard A. Cohen (University at Buffalo, State University of New York, and Vilnius University) will give a lecture, "Levinas: The Teachings of Joy, Suffering, and Happiness".
Emmanuel Levinas’s great philosophical originality lies in his argument that ethics, rather than epistemology or ontology, is first philosophy. What it puts first is neither existence, language, textuality, thinking or myth, but the other person. Provoked by the other person’s radical otherness, what is first are the obligations of ethical responsibility, both personal and political. It is often overlooked, however, that and to what great extent Levinas’s ethics relies upon his own original phenomenological investigations. Professor Cohen’s presentation will focus on these investigations, particularly on the meaning and role of the body, of “joy, suffering and happiness” in Levinas’s ethical philosophy.
This lecture is part of the research “Assessment of Philosophy Teaching in High School Education” (No. P-EDU-23-19).
This research No. P-EDU-23-19 is co-funded by the European Union (the project „Breakthrough in Educational Research“ No. 10-044-P-0001) under the 1st April 2025 Agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania) and the 15th April 2025 Joint Activity Agreement with Vilnius University.