This book is a compendium of seven articles derived from presentations made in 2006 during symposiums which marked the 100th anniversary of Levinas' birth. The articles cover a wide variety of topics and views in an effort to thoroughly explore the author's work. In this compilation, readers will learn a great deal about Levinas' writings (for example, his approach to morality, his way of switching back and forth between the universal and the particular, and his role in 20th-century French philosophy).
The book's unity may be attributed to two factors:
1) First, the author strives to present Levinas on the basis of what makes the latter's thought so unique, namely the philosophical privilege attributed to ethical relations; i.e., the emotion which makes us our brothers' keepers when we are face-to-face with them – the ethical emotion.
2) Second, an attempt is made to reveal and discuss Levinas' thought as a living thing which concerns and deeply affects us right here and now. It is seen as bearing a message which can be equated with those found in other styles and systems of contemporary philosophy. The author avoids, as much as possible, any formal and shaky rehashing of Levinas' terms and phrases (as is evident from the sub-title "Levinas lives").

Jean-Michel Salanskis is a Professor of Philosophy in the areas of science, logics and epistemology at Université de Paris X-Nanterre. He has worked in the field of epistemology and on phenomenology and contemporary philosophy, as well as on the Jewish tradition. His notable works include Heidegger and Husserl, which are part of Les Belles Lettres' "Figures du savoir" Collection. His latest published books are: Philosophie des mathématiques, and Usages contemporains de la phénoménologie.