Language:
English
Year of publication:
2010
Titel der Quelle:
Jewish Quarterly Review
Angaben zur Quelle:
100,3 (2010) 454-482
Keywords:
Simmel, Georg,
;
Boas, Franz,
;
Ruppin, Arthur,
;
Antisemitism History 1800-2000
;
Antisemitism Philosophy
Abstract:
In the late 19th century, with the emergence of modern social science, antisemitism acquired scientific argumentation, which had to be answered also by scientists. Compares responses to this rise in antisemitism of three German-born sociologists of Jewish origin: Georg Simmel (1858-1918), the anthropologist Franz Boas (1858-1942), and Arthur Ruppin (1876-1943). The first two were convinced assimilationists, while Ruppin was a Zionist in his worldview. Their responses reveal three different approaches to the issue, as well as three types of polemical exchange. Simmel developed a strictly individualist sociological theory that portrayed antisemitism as being a mere social construct. Boas attacked the methodology of racist anthropology in order to collapse antisemitism into prejudice and a subcase of racism. Ruppin accepted many antisemitic assumptions concerning Jews, while repudiating antisemitic writers' judgments. Following Dascal's typology of polemical exchange, Ruppin engaged in a discussion with antisemitic writers, whose object was the assessment of Jewish difference; Simmel engaged in a dispute on attitudes; and Boas' engaged in a controversy revolving around specific problems and methodology. Of the three, Boas' response to "scientific" racism and antisemitism was the most influential.
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