Jews Out of the Question: A Critique of Anti-Anti-Semitism (SUNY series, Philosophy and Race) - Softcover

Lapidot, Elad

Softcover

ISBN 10: 143848044X ISBN 13: 9781438480442

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 2021

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Elad Lapidot is Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Lille, France. He is the author of Jews Out of the Question: A Critique of Anti-Anti-Semitism, also published by SUNY Press.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 2021
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 143848044X
• ISBN 13: 9781438480442
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 340