December 25

Emmanuel Levinas developed a groundbreaking ethical philosophy emphasizing the face-to-face encounter and responsibility to the Other as the foundation of human relations. Born in Lithuania, he studied under Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger before forging his own phenomenological path in France. His major works, including Totality and Infinity and Otherwise than Being, challenged traditional ontology and influenced contemporary ethics, theology, and political thought. Levinas held professorships at the University of Poitiers and the Sorbonne, mentoring students across disciplines. His influence endures in academic and activist circles that explore ethics, human rights, and social justice.

Born in 1908, Quine spent most of his academic career at Harvard University, teaching from 1936 until his retirement in 1978. His 1951 essay 'Two Dogmas of Empiricism' challenged the distinction between analytic and synthetic statements, reshaping philosophical thought. Quine championed a holistic view of knowledge and promoted the idea of naturalized epistemology. He authored seminal works including 'Word and Object', exploring the indeterminacy of translation and ontology. Quine mentored generations of philosophers and logicians, influencing fields from linguistics to artificial intelligence. He served as president of the American Philosophical Association and received numerous honorary degrees. Quine's rigorous approach to logic and language continues to be a cornerstone of contemporary analytic philosophy.