Thinking difference with Heidegger and Levinas : truth and justice /

The notoriously difficult primary texts under consideration in Uljée's study become manageable in this methodical, careful, and engaging work. Uljée (Leiden Univ., Netherlands) first goal is to explore how both Heidegger and Levinas attempted to "break open and disrupt thinking inherited by the philosophical tradition as represented by Hegel" (p. 2). Uljée's second and more focused aim is to demonstrate in what sense "Levinas's account of justice is a displacing and radicalization of Heidegger's thinking of being" (p. 145). Together, these goals represent the philosophical struggle to prioritize metaphysics or ethics, truth or justice. Uljée makes clear that the "ethical metaphysics" of Levinas prioritizes the other person and thereby highlights the importance of ethics before concerns with the nature of knowledge, truth, and being. Along the way, Uljée treats readers to a fine exposition of many key aspects of Heidegger's Being and Time (1927) as well as his substantive interpretation of Nietzsche. In the conclusion, Uljée cites Levinas's claim that "Being qua Being is a function of justice" and concludes that "philosophy is always and already responsibility" (p. 263). Abundant, instructive footnotes, index. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. --Heidi Storl, Augustana College (IL)