The first critical study of Vladimir Jankélévitch in English, this book traces Jankélévitch's reflections on the conditions of forgiveness and the temporality of forgiveness in relation to creation, history, and memory. It demonstrates the influence of Jewish and Christian thought on Jankélévitch's understanding of forgiveness and the interconnection of metaphysics, mysticism, aesthetics, and ethics in his philosophy. This work contextualizes Jankélévitch's thought within the history of philosophy from Plato and Aristotle to Butler, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Scheler, and Bergson, and it en ... More The first critical study of Vladimir Jankélévitch in English, this book traces Jankélévitch's reflections on the conditions of forgiveness and the temporality of forgiveness in relation to creation, history, and memory. It demonstrates the influence of Jewish and Christian thought on Jankélévitch's understanding of forgiveness and the interconnection of metaphysics, mysticism, aesthetics, and ethics in his philosophy. This work contextualizes Jankélévitch's thought within the history of philosophy from Plato and Aristotle to Butler, Kant, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Scheler, and Bergson, and it engages him in contemporary debates with Arendt, Derrida, Levinas, and Ricoeur. The Shoah was the pivotal historical event in Jankélévitch’s life. This book poses his question “is forgiveness possible as a response to evil?” and shows why it remains a potent philosophical question today. It argues for the unity of Jankélévitch's two works on forgiveness—his initial polemical essay against forgiveness and his later ode to forgiveness, and it highlights the tensions in Jankélévitch’s philosophy between resentment and forgiveness, love and justice, and a forgiveness conditioned by repentance and an unconditional forgiveness. In what Jankélévitch calls the organ-obstacle, evil is paradoxically both the organ or impetus for forgiveness and the obstacle to forgiveness.