Morality on the Edge

This volume couples and examines Modernity and the Holocaust in Lithuania through the lens of Western moral philosophy, especially the ethics of Emmanuel Levinas. The Holocaust appears not as an abstract event but as a real situation involving real choices, real actions, of real people. In rethinking moral problems and dilemmas, the volume draws on various diaries written in the Vilnius and Kaunas ghettos as historical testimonies. These sources reveal in all their concretude the fragility of human freedom, the difficulty of ethical choice, and the vulnerability of human beings. Contributing authors also seek to understand the responsibility of philosophy itself - how it is tested and what it has to say when confronted with violence and evil. At the far edge of extremity, the Holocaust surely tests the limits of our concepts, our language, and our theoretical and practical paradigms. The evil of the Holocaust, after all, is not a theoretical or hypothetical question but rather concerns the concrete death of millions of people. No doubt the Holocaust is a tragedy suffered by the Jewish people, but it is as well a traumatic event for all humanity - it is our issue. Dr. Jolanta Saldukaityte is an Associate Professor and Researcher at Vilnius University, Lithuania. Her research interests include phenomenology, Levinas, and the problem of evil. Dr. Luc Anckaert is a specialist in Philosophy, Theology and Biblical Philology. He teaches Jewish Philosophy at the Higher Institute of Philosophy, KU Leuven, Belgium.