Levinas Philosophy Summer Seminar Series

Director: Richard A. Cohen, University of Buffalo (SUNY), USA; Asst. Directors: James McLachlan, Emeritus, Western Carolina University, USA; Jolanta Saldukaityte, Vilnius University, Lithuania

How to teach philosophy has always been one of philosophy’s central questions.  In person, teacher and student conversing, but how precisely, and to what end?  The traditional answers usually rely on a distinction between opinion and knowledge, aligned to an ontological-metaphysical distinction between appearance and reality.  Truth, which can be taught, must base itself in reality.  Socrates, seeking definition, interrogated his interlocutors face-to-face; Plato established an Academy and published Dialogues; Aristotle set up a Lyceum and published his lectures.  Levinas demands that we rethink and reorient intelligibility more profoundly, anchoring it not in knowledge and being but in ethics, in moral responsibility.  In the most profound sense, then, his philosophy is the teaching of teaching. “Teaching,” Levinas wrote at the start of Totality and Infinity (1964) “is not reducible to maieutics; it comes from the exterior and brings me more than I contain.  In its non-violent transitivity the very epiphany of the face is produced.”  

Throughout his adult life Levinas was a teacher, from 1930 at a Jewish school in Paris through the 1980s when after his WWII internment he was appointed Director of the same school.  For fifteen years from 1961 to 1976 he was also a French university professor. 

By close reading and group discussion of selected texts by Levinas, the 2026 LPSS aims to clarify and critically appraise the nature and role of teaching in Levinas’s thought. 

To apply:
Fifteen scholars of philosophy/Humanities and/or educational sciences – professors and graduate students – will be accepted to participate in this round-table seminar.

To apply send:

(1) A detailed résumé, curriculum vitae, or brief biography with names and contact information of two professional references; (2) A short application statement addressing your interest, both academic and personal, in the subject to be studied and the qualifications and experiences that equip you to do the work of the seminar and to make a contribution to a learning community.

Send both application documents as email attachments to: Levinas.center@gmail.com

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis from the present time until deadline, until all fifteen places are filled. A limited number of auditors will also be accepted; please indicate if you are applying as an auditor.

Application deadline: April 15, 2026. 

All applicants will be notified no later than May 1, 2026.

There is no registration fee or financial support.

LPSS meets at Vilnius University,10:00 to 12:00, 14:00 to 17:00 Monday through Friday.  Wednesday afternoon a voluntary group visit to Kaunas, Levinas’s hometown. 

This Seminar is a part of the project “Assessment of Philosophy Teaching in High School Education”, Nr. P-EDU-23-19.  See, https://www.fsf.vu.lt/en/research/projects/national-projects-en/projects-of-research-council-of-lithuania-en/207-research/projects-of-research-council-of-lithuania/6762-assessment-of-philosophy-teaching-in-high-school-education

Jolanta Saldukaityte
Vilnius, Lithuania
levinas.center@gmail.com