Levinas on the Dog as a Guide to Sociality: The Animal's Face and the Ethics of Responsibility Introduction: The Animal in Phenomenology of the Other Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995), a French philosopher of Lithuanian-Jewish origin, is known for his radical ethics centered around the concept of the Other (l'Autre). In his system, the Other appears in the experience of the Face (visage), whose vulnerable gaze imposes an unconditional ethical responsibility on the "I". The question of whether this status extends to animals remains one of the most controversial in Levinas studies. However, in his late essay "The Name of the Dog" ("Nom d'un chien", 1975), there is a striking fragment where the dog is depicted not just as an animal, but as a guide and catalyst of human sociality, returning the degenerated human their ethical dimension. Context: The Camp Dog Bobby Levinas constructs his reflection on personal experience — memories of a Nazi prisoner-of-war camp (Stalag XI-B), where he spent several years as a Jewish French soldier. In this camp, Jews were separated from other prisoners and even denied the "right" to be called humans in the eyes of the guards; they were designated by the abbreviation "PJ" ("prisoner juif"). In this space of total dehumanization, where man was reduced to a number and stripped of his face in the eyes of others, a dog appears — a street dog named Bobby. Key Moment: Bobby, unlike the guards, recognized the prisoners as people. He joyfully greeted them in the evening as they returned from work. For Levinas, this dog became a being that "for the last time on European soil" recognized them as people. The Dog as the "First Ethical Subject" In the camp conditions, the entire system of human sociality based on language, law, and culture collapses. The German guards, bearers of "high" European culture, deny the prisoners humanity. And here, in this ethical vacuum, the dog Bobby performs a paradoxical function: She returns the prisoners their "face". Bob ... Read more