Toward the Outside

Unlike many recent studies that have purported to examine the scope of Levinas's thinking, Toward the Outside is distinguished by its attention to texts from both of Levinas's two main genres: the philosophical and the confessional. Organized into three parts, the first examines key pairs of concepts totality/infinity, same/other, saying/said, among others. Smith demonstrates a keen attunement to the development of Levinas's thought as an overall philosophical trajectory. In part 2, Smith more explicitly identifies themes that are essential to our better understanding of Levinas Judaism and the Holocaust, temporality, Levinas's treatment of Husserl and Heidegger, Derrida's reading of Levinas, and others. Finally, in part 3, his commentary, based on close readings of selected Levinas texts, meticulously follows and highlights the development of Levinas's thought.