Premium
The “Ethical Anthropic Principle” and the Religious Ethics of Levinas
Author(s) -
Nuyen A. T.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of religious ethics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.306
H-Index - 20
eISSN - 1467-9795
pISSN - 0384-9694
DOI - 10.1111/0384-9694.00091
Subject(s) - anthropic principle , subject (documents) , philosophy , subjectivity , epistemology , moral evil , meaning (existential) , environmental ethics , computer science , library science
Why did Levinas choose Isaiah 45:7 (“I make peace and create evil: I the Lord do all that”) as a superscription of his essay on evil? This article explores the role of evil in Levinas's religious ethics. The author discusses the structure of evil as revealed phenomenologically and juxtaposes it to the structure of subjectivity found in the writings of Levinas. The idea of the “ethical anthropic principle”, modeled upon the cosmic anthropic principle, is then used to link evil to the responsibility of the subject. The link is subsequently extended to God. This is proposed as one way of understanding the meaning of Isaiah 45:7.