The Albert T. Bilgray Memorial Campus Lecture

March 22, 2012
The Social and Ethical Character of Human Existence: Emmanuel Levinas and Judaism
Michael Morgan, PhD
Chancellor’s Professor, Philosophy and Jewish Studies (Emeritus), Indiana University

7:00 pm
The University of Arizona Student Union Memorial Center
Union Kiva,  the main level of the Memorial Student Union (NE corner)
Suggested parking: 2nd Street Garage, Mountain Ave. & 2nd Street

An examination of the philosopher, Talmudic commentator, and one-time prisoner of war in Germany, Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995). Throughout decades of creative work, Levinas became known for an approach that placed the question of personal ethical responsibility to others at the center of his philosophical inquiries.   Prof. Morgan will discuss what is distinctive and valuable in the conjunction of philosophy and Judaism in the ideas of this seminal Jewish intellectual.

Dr. Morgan received his rabbinic ordination from the Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion in 1970, and his doctoral degree in Philosophy from The University of Toronto. He is the author of sixteen books on subjects as diverse as Jewish Thought After the Holocaust, Modern Jewish Philosophy, and Moral and Political Theory.  Among these works are several that examine the contributions of important thinkers such as Benedict Spinoza, Emil Fackenheim, and Emmanuel Levinas.

Co-sponsored by Temple Emanu-El, Arizona Center for Judaic Studies, Hillel of the University of Arizona, Religious Studies Program of the University of Arizona, Philosophy Department of the University of Arizona, Tucson Marriott University Park.