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.

Elad Lapidot is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Bern in Switzerland. He is coeditor (with Micha Brumlik) of Heidegger and Jewish Thought: Difficult Others.

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Anti-Anti-Semitism

1. Anti-Heidegger: Anatomy of Anti-Anti-Semitism

2. Anti-Semitic Creation of Jews: Adorno & Horkheimer to Sartre

3. Jewish Creation of Anti-Semitism: Arendt and Badiou

4. The Anti-Anti-Semitic Jew: Jean-Luc Nancy

Part II: Anti-Semitism

5. Renan's Anti-Semitic Science

6. Aphenomenology of the Jewish Question: Bauer and Marx

7. Triumph of Judaism: From Marr to Hitler

Epilogue: The End of Anti-Anti-Semitism as Introduction to Talmud

Bibliography
Index