What's Wrong with Killing in Battle? Levinas in Light of Tamares: A Response to Aryeh Cohen

Levinas's opposition to war seems entirely abstract and symbolic, particularly when read alongside the more concrete antiwar philosophy of Tamares. Where Tamares warns of the destructive consequences of resorting to physical violence, Levinas talks of war's totalizing effects, in terms that seem insufficiently sensitive to the personal suffering and devastation that war uniquely inflicts. On closer scrutiny, however, Levinas's ethical philosophy—seen in light of his take on killing and murder—proves highly responsive to the unique evils of violent war, after all, and closer to Tamares. But to see this one has to look beyond his explicit denunciation of war and war-making, and to his overall philosophical project.