Language:
French
Year of publication:
1993
Titel der Quelle:
Archives Européennes de Sociologie
Angaben zur Quelle:
34,1 (1993) 3-16
Keywords:
Treitschke, Heinrich von,
;
Cohen, Hermann,
;
Jews History 19th century
;
Antisemitism History 19th century
Abstract:
Argues that the opponents of Treitschke in the antisemitism debate of 1880, even the neo-Kantian Hermann Cohen, accepted Treitschke's presupposition that legal rights are "bestowed" by the state and are conditional on a shared purpose, in this case German (or German-Christian) identity. The issue was not whether Jews ought to give up their "peculiarities" and become assimilated Germans, but whether they were willing and able to do so; their defenders claimed that they were. This view contradicts the philosophy of natural rights as well as Kant's concept of the unconditional rights of every human being, rights which are not "bestowed" by any state. An attempt to make them conditional on a common purpose (German identity) lays the foundation for arbitrariness, tyranny, and eventually the Holocaust.
Note:
Appeared also in "Kant-Studien" 84 (1993). In French: "Commentaire" 67 (1994).
DOI:
10.1017/S0003975600006536
URL:
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