Language:
French
Year of publication:
1991
Titel der Quelle:
Tsafon; revue d'études juives du Nord
Angaben zur Quelle:
8 (1991-1992) 1-45
Keywords:
Haskalah
;
Philosophy
;
Antisemitism History 1500-
Abstract:
Presents an overview of the place of antisemitism in German philosophy between 1770-1850. Argues that modern European philosophy, which was part of the de-Christianization process, was opposed to Judaism almost from the start. It integrated Spinoza's depreciation of Judaism, as expressed in the "Tractatus theologico-politicus" (1670) which introduced the "Jewish question" into philosophy. From Kant on, German philosophy was marked by a clear rejection of the Jews. Whereas the Enlightenment "humanized" Judaism and the Jews, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Bauer, and Marx systematically presented them in a negative light and relegated them to the periphery of society. The Jews were viewed as hereditarily and eternally guilty of having excluded themselves from humanity. Their alarming situation was a punishment for their stubborn pride and refusal to be a part of history, i.e. of progress. Shows that all basic anti-Jewish themes were present already in Kant's thinking, and that they were developed further by Fichte and Bauer, including the dissociation of Christianity from its original source. Hegel, as well as his predecessors, echoed Christianity's dispossession of the Jews in order to appropriate their heritage. The Hegelian Left was uncompromisingly antisemitic, declaring Jewish assimilation as impossible while pretending to embrace it. Deals mainly with Bauer, whose antisemitism showed new, racist traits. Bauer held that the Jews were responsible for their own persecution. In his view, society needed to be perfectly homogeneous in order to be truly human. The solution to the "Jewish question" faltered in the face of Jewish inability to acquire the "virtue" of homogeneity.
URL:
Locate this publication in Israeli libraries
Permalink