Vladimir Jankélévitch

Discusses the moral and metaphysical philosophy of Vladimir Jankélévitch, his reflections on the conditions for forgiveness, especially in light of the Shoah, and the temporality of forgiveness in its relation to creation, history, and memory.

Looney Aaron T. :

Aaron Looney teaches philosophy at Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen.

—Bruce Ellis Benson:
Aaron Looney carefully lays out the hyperbolic logic of pure forgiveness demanded by Jankélévitch. He shows us that the two most important books by Jankélévitch both differ dramatically from each other and yet can be read as being in continuity. Looney presents a rich tapestry in which he considers such influences on Jankélévitch as Bergson, Nietzsche, and Scheler. He also examines the relationship between Jankélévitch and such thinkers as Arendt and Derrida (showing Derrida to be much closer to Jankélévitch than one might think). The result is a moving work in which we are reminded just how central forgiveness is to human existence.

—Robert Bernasconi:
It is a scandal that we have had to wait so long for the first monograph in English on Jankekevitch, but this book is more than a fitting tribute to a major thinker. By focusing on Jankelevitch's controversial but difficult theory of forgiveness Aaron T. Looney had made a genuine philosophical contribution in his own right.

—Andrew Kelley:
“Looney gives a general introduction to Jankélévitch’s thought, then goes on to provide an in-depth study of Jankélévitch’s book Forgiveness by comparing and contrasting it with thinkers such as Max Scheler, Nietzsche, Levinas, Derrida, Aristotle, and other prominent writers in moral thought.”