This text reveals how Emmanuel Levinas' thought moves from an an-archichal ethics based on the face of the Other to an embrace of the modern liberal state.

An-Archy and Justice reveals how Emmanuel Levinas' thought moves from an an-archichal ethics based on the face of the Other to an embrace of the modern liberal state. Author William Paul Simmons argues that by grounding the liberal state in this an-archical ethic, Levinas' philosophy provides a new foundation and new possibilities for key concepts of political thought such as natural rights, freedom, humanism, and international relations.

Introduction: intellectual biography, Judaism and the possibility of a Levinasian politics
autonomy, totality and anti-humanism - Levinas's critique of the Western philosophical tradition
Levinasian ethics 1 - "totality and infinity"
Levinasian ethics 2 - otherwise than being
ethics and politics - an-archy and justice
why tell this long story about the face? Levinas and liberal political thought
levinas's humanism of the Other as a response to modern and postmodern anti-humanisms
Zionism, place and the Other - toward a Levinasian international relations
conclusion - the questioning of Levinas.