Jews Out of the Question: A Critique of Anti-Anti-Semitism

A provocative study of opposition to anti-Semitism in contemporary political philosophy.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.

• | Author: Elad Lapidot
• | Publisher: State University of New York Press
• | Publication Date: Nov 01, 2020
• | Number of Pages: 340 pages
• | Binding: Hardback or Cased Book
• | ISBN-10: 1438480458
• | ISBN-13: 9781438480459