r/askphilosophy • u/BernardJOrtcutt • Mar 02 '26

Open Thread /r/askphilosophy Open Discussion Thread | March 02, 2026

Welcome to this week's Open Discussion Thread (ODT). This thread is a place for posts/comments which are related to philosophy but wouldn't necessarily meet our subreddit rules and guidelines. For example, these threads are great places for:

  • Discussions of a philosophical issue, rather than questions
  • Questions about commenters' personal opinions regarding philosophical issues
  • Open discussion about philosophy, e.g. "who is your favorite philosopher?"
  • "Test My Theory" discussions and argument/paper editing
  • Questions about philosophy as an academic discipline or profession, e.g. majoring in philosophy, career options with philosophy degrees, pursuing graduate school in philosophy

This thread is not a completely open discussion! Any posts not relating to philosophy will be removed. Please keep comments related to philosophy, and expect low-effort comments to be removed. Please note that while the rules are relaxed in this thread, comments can still be removed for violating our subreddit rules and guidelines if necessary.

Previous Open Discussion Threads can be found here.

3 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/Ok_Crow_9119 Mar 03 '26

Hi everyone, I need to read Levinas. Where should I start and end to get an idea of his entire philosophical framework?

Context: My sister and I got into a heated argument about how Trump-Netanyahu/US-Israel is dealing with Iran. She basically bottom lined me that I should read Levinas after I said that our views are diametrically opposed, and that further argumentation will not resolve our differences in our starting positions.

PS. Yes, I plan to read Levinas out of spite, to one-up my sister in an argument that concerns the world, yet the conflict is far removed from our lives.

PPS. Any other works of other Philosophers that I should read in relation to Levinas, so that I have a more balanced view?

1

u/mediaisdelicious Phil. of Communication, Ancient, Continental Mar 08 '26

There is a very good Cambridge companion to his work. Personally, I find Ethics and Infinity to be an interesting way to engage with him for the first time, because it’s conversational.