Andrew Wilshere
Address: Room A21, Samuel Alexander Building
Email: andrew.wilshere [at] manchester.ac.uk
PhD title: The Rights of the Other: Emmanuel Levinas's Ethical Phenomenology as a Critique of Hillel Steiner's An Essay on Rights
Supervisors: Prof. Alexander Samely (Middle Eastern Studies) and Prof. Hillel Steiner (Politics)
Main discipline area: Political Theory, Jewish Studies
Research interests: Phenomenology, political theory, theory of justice, theory of rights, Jewish studies, relationship between "continental" and "analytic" philosophy, philosophy of music, Jewish-Christian relations
Research specialism:
"Analytical" and "continental" philosophies are often considered incommensurate because they are thought to embody intrinsically opposed approaches to philosophical questions. Yet could Emmanuel Levinas, a twentieth-century French-Lithuanian philosopher, offer a radical reappraisal of the relationship between the two? His work is in an ambiguous position, in that it breaks both with Husserl's phenomenology and yet also cuts to the heart of the analytical tradition through his ethical critique of ontology. Morgan (2007) has also identified such potential for Levinas to bridge the two traditions.
Levinas has become popular with theologians and ethicists in recent years, but often the major motifs of his thought have been "applied" in a shallow and uncritical fashion. My project distances itself decisively from this approach, instead retaining focus on a rigorous comparative method, with close reading of all of Levinas' works and mainstream figures in contemporary political theory. Scholarship on Levinas and politics is currently sparse (Bergo 1999; Caygill 2002). This project strives for a more substantial engagement with the political thrust of Levinas' thought.
How could Levinas' philosophy change our understanding of the Anglo-American analytical tradition of political thought? This project, which began in January 2008, has so far sought to assemble on their own terms the key concepts in both Levinas' work and in the work of Steiner (1994) and Rawls (1971). Notably, the latter both fail to justify the ethical assumptions upon which rest their respective accounts of "rights and duties" and "justice as fairness". Levinas, however, raises the possibility that liberalism's rational accounts of freedom and justice derive from the ethical constitution of human subjectivity.
What is the relationship, then, between liberalism's discourse of "rights" and Levinas' account of "responsibility"? Steiner (1994) offers rational procedures for making judgements about rights and duties. Levinas offers no such procedures, but does provide an account for the derivation of rational systems of justice from a pre-subjective, pre-rational ethical encounter with "the other". Could there be more shared ground in this conception of rights and responsibility than has previously been recognized?
Publications, conference papers, and research seminars:
- June 2012 (forthcoming). "Emmanuel Levinas's Critique of the Scientific Attitude." Paper presented to the British Association for Jewish Studies (BAJS) Annual Conference, University College, London.
- February 2011. "The Rabbit in Hillel Steiner's Hat." Paper presented to University of Manchester Centre for Political Theory (MANCEPT).
- September 2009. "Levinas Between Husserl and Bible." Paper presented to University of Otago Biblical Studies Seminar.
- October 2008. "Emmanuel Levinas: Towards a Political Reading." Paper presented to Manchester University Centre for Jewish Studies (MUCJS).
- June 2008. "Emmanuel Levinas, Language and Belonging." Language and Belonging conference, University of Manchester.
- July 2006. Book review, "Theology and Popular Culture". Crucible.
Teaching Areas:
- 2011-12: MEST 20011, Theories in the Academic Study of the Middle East;
MEST 10732, Introduction to Modern Middle Eastern History. - 2010-11: MEST 20011, Theories in the Academic Study of the Middle East.
- 2006-7: Undergraduate Level 1 core course in Middle Eastern Studies.
- In addition to these teaching areas, I co-convene the Levinas Reading Group with Prof. Alexander Samely. We meet roughly every fortnight on a Wednesday evening. Please contact me if you would be interested in joining.
Professional biography:
I have attended the University of Manchester since 2002, first studying Religions and Theology and then completing a Masters in Middle Eastern Studies. My MA thesis examined the philosophy of liturgical music and improvisation through the work of Franz Rosenzweig, who informed certain aspects of Levinas' philosophy. At the University I have also worked as research assistant to Prof. Elaine Graham and as Project Secretary to the AHRC-funded research project "Typology of Anonymous and Pseudepigraphic Jewish Literature in Antiquity".
In addition to my studies I work as a freelance musician. In 2009 I took a year away from my PhD studies to serve as Organ Scholar of St Paul's Cathedral, New Zealand. During that year I also worked as a Deputy Warden of Selwyn College, an independent Anglican college within the University of Otago. My other interests are design, composition, poetry, and road cycling. In 2010 I raised £1500 for the Alzheimer's Society on a sponsored ride from London to Paris.