In this chapter, by turning to an article that Levinas wrote on Husserl in 1940 – “The Work of Edmund Husserl” – we will, at one stroke, continue and develop the themes of chapters 1 and 2. That is to say, by means of a close examination of one of Levinas's still early readings of Husserl, we will find that Levinas “discovers” at the heart of phenomenological consciousness the very Bergsonian intertwining of activity and passivity that defines contemporary thought. In later chapters, especially chapters 6 and 7, we will elaborate Levinas's ethical metaphysics in its own terms, without reference to Husserl. Here, however, we will follow Levinas's own route into his ethical metaphysics, a route that traverses and surpasses Husserlian phenomenology.

But Levinas's route – the route to ethics for an educated Westerner – is not accidental or fortuitous. And this means, too, that it is in some sense never done with. Let us recall, Husserl presents the science of phenomenology as the most advanced outpost of the Western quest for knowledge. Both supplementing and surpassing the natural and social sciences, it would be knowledge of the most radical, comprehensive, and rigorous kind. As such it would represent, as we have seen, the most advanced form of the scientific spirit of the West. Hence, given the universality of science and the value of knowledge, phenomenology would represent, for a devoted scientific thinker such as Husserl, following a long philosophical tradition, the very humanity of the human.