本书是著名现象学家列维纳斯的代表作，是其前期思想的核心，对现象学有着深远的影响。在本书中，列维纳斯把西方传统的存在论哲学视作一种总体哲学。这种哲学以作为总体的存在为最终的意义来源，抹杀作为个体的个人的意义与价值，充满了对于他者的暴力。与这种总体哲学相反，列维纳斯通过对面容的现象学分析表明，在面容中呈现出来的他人标志着绝对的外在性，是真正的无限，不可还原为内在性。他进而证明，自我与他人的伦理关联既先于自我与他人的存在关系，也先于自我与对象的存在关系。在此意义上，伦理学先于存在论。本书最终表明，自我与他人之间有着一种不可还原的非同一性，自我与他人的面对面是存在中的终极关系。因此，哲学必然是“多元论”的，世界的本原是多元，是每一个表达着的自我。这多元之间则通过作为主体性的善良而最终走向和平。

Otherwise than Being, or Beyond Essence, first published in 1974, is the second of Levinas's mature philosophical works, the first being Totality and Infinity (first published in 1961). Otherwise than Being is essentially the sequel to Totality and Infinity, further elaborating the rich and comprehensive philosophy of ethical metaphysics that Levinas had introduced in the earlier work. At the heart of Levinas's writings is the irreducible ethical proximity of one human being to another⎯morality, and through that encounter a relation to all others⎯justice. Otherwise than Being emphasizes the themes of moral sensibility and language within this system of ethical metaphysics. These themes had been introduced in Totality and Infinity, but are developed in this later work. And while Totality is focused on ethical alterity, Otherwise is focused on ethical subjectivity. The process of the revelation of Being as laid out by modern phenomenological ontology is severely criticized, as Levinas claims that the ultimate account of these phenomena is not in ontology, but in a paradoxical discourse of what is beyond Being.

《经典通读》是将经典学术巨著进行全新通俗化编译的丛书，旨在引领读者轻松快速阅读学术经典，从而普及对人类影响深远的社会科学、自然科学的名家名著。 《经典通读:西方哲学史》该丛书之一，是畅销世界的西方哲学教科书。