Abstract

This article discusses two essays, one by Beauvoir and the other by Levinas, both titled "An Eye for an Eye" after the passage from Leviticus. Beauvoir and Levinas disagree on how to assess the severity of crimes and on how to address crimes when they do occur. I trace these specific differences between them back to differences in their overarching philosophical positions. I then conclude by suggesting that Beauvoir and Levinas, through the way they define crimes, indirectly provide us with similar and very powerful conceptions of what it means to be human. -/- .