Evil in the thought of Emmanuel Levinas

The present article is mainly concerned with the vision of evil and the ultimate crisis of theodicy in the thought of the Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas (19061995). In this article, I review Levinas's most systematic essays on the subject, emphasizing the notions of evil as excess, horror, and useless suffering. In order to contextualize the central question, I point out the emergence of absolute evil and the experience of the horror of Auschwitz in the testimony of surviving victims and the philosophical and religious reflection of some voices of contemporary Jewish philosophy.