In post-Holocaust philosophy, anti-Semitism has come to be seen as a paradigmatic political and ideological evil.
Jews Out of the Question examines the role that opposition to anti-Semitism has played in shaping contemporary political philosophy. Elad Lapidot argues that post-Holocaust philosophy identifies the fundamental, epistemological evil of anti-Semitic thought not in thinking
against Jews, but in thinking
of Jews. In other words, what philosophy denounces as anti-Semitic is the figure of 'the Jew’ in thought. Lapidot reveals how, paradoxically, opposition to anti-Semitism has generated a rejection of Jewish thought in post-Holocaust philosophy. Through critical readings of political philosophers such as Adorno, Horkheimer, Sartre, Arendt, Badiou, and Nancy, the book contends that by rejecting Jewish thought, the opposition to anti-Semitism comes dangerously close to anti-Semitism itself, and at work in this rejection, is a problematic understanding of the relations between politics and thought—a troubling political epistemology. Lapidot’s critique of this political epistemology is the book’s ultimate aim.
Spis treści
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: Anti-Anti-Semitism
1. Anti-Heidegger: Anatomy of Anti-Anti-Semitism
2. Anti-Semitic Creation of Jews: Adorno & Horkheimer to Sartre
3. Jewish Creation of Anti-Semitism: Arendt and Badiou
4. The Anti-Anti-Semitic Jew: Jean-Luc Nancy
Part II: Anti-Semitism
5. Renan’s Anti-Semitic Science
6. Aphenomenology of the Jewish Question: Bauer and Marx
7. Triumph of Judaism: From Marr to Hitler
Epilogue: The End of Anti-Anti-Semitism as Introduction to Talmud
Bibliography
Index
O autorze
Elad Lapidot is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bern in Switzerland. He is coeditor (with Micha Brumlik) of
Heidegger and Jewish Thought: Difficult Others.