Peter Atterton (Ph.D., University of Essex)
Associate Professor of Philosophy

Interests

Continental Philosophy, Levinas, Animal Philosophy, Atheology

My interests focus on the intersection of the tradition (especially the work of Kant) with Continental philosophy (especially the work of Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, Levinas, and Derrida); with applied philosophy (especially Singer); with the arts (especially Shakespeare, Dostoyevsky, and Eliot); with Freudian psychoanalysis; and with nihilism (especially Bataille and Cioran).

Publications

Authored Books

On Levinas (with Matthew Calarco) (Belmont: Wadsworth, 2004).

Edited Books

Forthcoming: Radicalizing Levinas (with Matthew Calarco) (Albany: SUNY Press).

Levinas and Buber: Dialogue and Difference (with Matthew Calarco and Maurice Friedman) (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2004) .
Translated into Spanish: Levinas y Buber, diálogo y diferencias (Argentina: Lilmod Ediciones, 2005).

Animal Philosophy: Essential Readings in Continental Thought (with Matthew Calarco, and with a preface by Peter Singer) (New York: Continuum, 2004) ).

The Continental Ethics Reader (with Matthew Calarco) (London: Routledge, 2003).

Guest Editor

Forthcoming: Levinas Studies. An Annual Review, Vol. V (Pittsburg, PA.: Duquesne University Press, 2010).

Refereed Journal Articles

“A Duty to Be Charitable? A Rigoristic Reading of Kant.” Kant-Studien 2 (2007): 135-155.

“'The Talking Cure': The Ethics of Psychoanalysis.” The Psychoanalytic Review 94, 4 (August 2007): 553-576.

“Art, Religion, and Ethics Post Mortem Dei: Levinas and Dostoyevsky.” Levinas Studies: An Annual Review, Vol. II, ed. Jeffrey Bloechl (Pittsburg, PA.: Duquesne University Press, 2007), 105-132.

“The American People ‘To Come’: Deconstructing the Declaration of Independence and Melting the Salad.” Journal of the Interdisciplinary Crossroads 3, 2 (August 2006): 405-429.

“Philosophy as a Practice for Life.” Philosophical Practice 1,2 (2005): 89-93.

“Introduction” to Emmanuel Levinas “The Meaning of Religious Practice" (with Matthew Calarco and Joelle Hansel). Modern Judaism 25, 3 (2005): 285-286.

"Derrida's Gift: The Feminine." International Studies in Philosophy 35:2 (2003): 1-26.

"The Proximity Between Levinas and Kant: The Primacy of Pure Practical Reason." The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 40, 3 (1999): 61-77.

"Levinas's Skeptical Critique of Metaphysics and Anti-humanism." Philosophy Today 41, 4 (1997): 491-506.
(Reprinted in Emmanuel Levinas: Critical Assessments, vol. 1, ed. Claire Katz with Lara Trout (New York: Routledge, 2005), 7-31.

"Power's Blind Struggle for Existence: Foucault, Genealogy and Darwinism." History of the Human Sciences Journal 7, 4 (1994): 1-20.

"Levinas and the Language of Peace: A Response to Derrida." Philosophy Today 36, 1 (1992): 59-70.

Book Chapters

Forthcoming: "Levinas, Justice, and Just War." Levinas in Jerusalem, ed. Joelle Hansel (Dordrecht: Springer).

"Ethical Cynicism." In Animal Philosophy (New York: Continuum, 2004), 51-61.

"Face-to-Face with the Other Animal?" In Levinas and Buber: Dialogue and Difference (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2004), 262-281.

"Emmanuel Levinas." In Postmodernism: The Key Figures. Eds. Hans Bertens and Joseph Natoli (Oxford: Blackwell, 2002), 231-8.

"From Transcendental Freedom to the Other" In In Proximity: Emmanuel Levinas and the 18th Century. Eds. Melvyn New, Robert Bernasconi, and Richard A. Cohen (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2001), 327-54.

Reviews

Review of Michael L. Morgan, Discovering Levinas. In Perspectives on Political Science 36, 4, Fall 2007.

Review of Lynne Sharpe, Creatures Like Us? In Times Literary Supplement, June 2005, 29.

Translations

Emmanuel Levinas, "The Meaning of Religious Practice." Modern Judaism 25, 3 (2005): 286-289.

Emmanuel Levinas, "On Buber" (Interview). In Levinas and Buber: Dialogue and Difference (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 2003).

Emmanuel Levinas, "Substitution" (with Graham Noctor). In Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings. Eds. Robert Bernasconi, Simon Critchley and Adriaan Peperzak (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 79-95.

Emmanuel Levinas, "Peace and Proximity." In Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 161-69.

Emmanuel Levinas, "Is Ontology Fundamental?" In Philosophy Today 33, 2 (1989): 121-29.
(Reprinted in Emmanuel Levinas: Basic Philosophical Writings. Eds. Robert Bernasconi, Simon Critchley and Adriaan Peperzak (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1996), 1-10.)

In-Progress Book

Ethics and Beyond: Levinas in Question

Web Sites

SDSU Dept. of Philosophy

The Emmanuel Levinas Web Page