Introduction : the last of the German Jewish philosophers -- The philosophical roots of the Holocaust -- The Jewish encounter with modern philosophy -- The matter of singularity -- From Auschwitz to Jerusalem -- Tikkun haolam -- Closing reflections.

For many, the Holocaust made thinking about ethics in traditional ways impossible. It called into question the predominance of speculative ontology in Western thought, and left many arguing that Western political, cultural and philosophical inattention to universal ethics were both a cause and an effect of European civilization's collapse in the twentieth century. Emmanuel Levinas, Elie Wiesel and Richard Rubenstein respond to this problem by insisting that ethics must be Western thought's first concern. Unlike previous thinkers, they locate humanity's source (...) of universal ethical obligation in the temporal world of experience, where human suffering, rather than metaphysics, provides the ground for ethical engagement. All three thinkers contend that Judaism’s key lesson is that our fellow human is our responsibility, and use Judaism to develop a contemporary ethics that could operate with or without God. _Ethics and Suffering since the Holocaust_ explores selected works of Levinas, Wiesel, and Rubenstein for practical applications of their ethics, analyzing the role of suffering and examining the use each thinker makes of Jewish sources and the advantages and disadvantages of this use. Finally, it suggests how the work of Jewish thinkers living in the wake of the Holocaust can be of unique value to those interested in the problem of ethics in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Presenting a thorough investigation of the work of Levinas, Wiesel and Rubinstein, this book is of key interest to students and scholars of Jewish studies, as well as Jewish ethics and philosophy. (shrink)

Die Dokumentation ist eine zentrale Quelle zur Geschichte der deutsch-judischen Emigrationsphilosophie. ARthur Liebert (1878-1946) war bis 1933 in Berlin der zentrale Organisator der Kant-Gesellschaft und Kant-Studien; Emil Utitz (1883-1956) profilierte als Ordinarius in Halle die philosophische Asthetik und Charakterologie; Liebert emigrierte 1933 nach Belgrad, 1939 nach England und kehrte 1946 nach Berlin zuruck; Utitz wechselte nach Prag, uberlebte das KZ Theresienstadt und blieb dann nach 1945 in Prag. BEide begrundeten nach 1933 philosophische Gesellschaften, die eng miteinander kooperierten und (...) in der Sicherung des Nachlasses von Edmund Husserl sowie der Herausgabe der Emigrationsfachzeitschrift Philosophia bis 1939 wichtige Aufgaben fanden. Das Buch rekonstruiert ihr Emigrationsschicksal, dokumentiert es durch die erhaltene Korrespondenz zwischen Utitz und Liebert sowie weitere sehr gewichtige Korrespondenzen und macht das Spatwerk der Autoren mit weithin unbekannten Texten zuganglich. Es erganzt die 2015 bei K&N erschienene Edition Ethik nach Theresienstadt. SPate Texte des Prager Philosophen Emil Utitz (1883-1956) historisch-biographisch. (shrink)

Lessons of history are often referred to in public discourse, but seldom in scholarly discussions. This book wants to change this by introducing an innovative scholarly, analytical model of historical lessons, starting from the basic three-fold perspective that you simultaneously are history, share history, and make history. Not any history is useful for extracting or using lessons. Here, what are denoted as borderline historical events, demonstrating both time-specific and time-transcending qualities, are suggested as useful materials. Scholarly works on the Holocaust (...) and Soviet terror, from Raul Hilberg's and Robert Conquest's classical works of the 1960s to more recent books by Jan Gross and Timothy Snyder, are analyzed to identify lessons of history, and their change during a full half-century. (shrink)

_The Ethics and Religious Philosophy of Etty Hillesum_ offers a comprehensive account of international scholarship on the life, works and vision of the Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum, and her struggle to come to terms with her personal life in the context of the Holocaust.

Auschwitz es el lugar donde la Filosofía tropieza. En Auschwitz pierde sus cimientos la Modernidad, porque el discurso moderno no puede referir el mundo de Auschwitz. Por eso Auschwitz es un acontecimiento. Mas es preciso decir la verdad de lo ocurrido si no queremos quedar suspendidos indefinidamente en mitad de la nada, expresándonos como fantasmas en un discurso sin fundamento. Tenemos que bajar a los infiernos; no podemos seguir invocando los valores ilustrados dando la espalda al acontecimiento que los pone (...) en evidencia. Debemos conocer los hechos que demuelen nuestra escritura: volver al lugar del crimen, al origen del trauma, volver a Auschwitz. No para condenarlo por enésima vez, sino para comprenderlo. No basta con la condena. (shrink)

Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who fled Continental Europe with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Their scholarship, though not normally considered together, is studied here to demonstrate how, despite their different disciplines and distinctive modes of working, they responded polemically in the guise of traditional scholarship to their shared trauma. For each, the political calamity of European fascism was a profound intellectual crisis, requiring an intellectual response (...) which Weinstein and Zakai now contextualize, ideologically and politically. They exemplify just how extensively, and sometimes how subtly, 1930s and 1940s scholarship was used not only to explain, but to fight the political evils that had infected modernity, victimizing so many. An original perspective on a popular area of research, this book draws upon a mass of secondary literature to provide an innovative and valuable contribution to twentieth-century intellectual history. (shrink)

A reconstruction of aspects of the philosophy of Adorno and Heidegger. This title reconstructs the philosophy of Adorno and Heidegger in the light of the importance that these thinkers attach to two proper names: Auschwitz and Germanien. In Adorno's dialectical thinking, Auschwitz is the name of an incommensurable historical event that seems to put a provisional end to history as a negative totality. In Heidegger's thinking of Being, Germanien is a name inscribed in an historical mission on which (...) the fate of Western civilization seems to depend: it thus becomes the name of a positive totality of history. (shrink)

Recognized as one of the leading philosophers and Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century, Emil Ludwig Fackenheim has been widely praised for his boldness, originality, and profundity. As is well-known, a striking feature of Fackenheim's thought is his unwavering contention that the Holocaust brought about a radical shift in human history, so monumental and unprecedented that nothing can ever be the same again. Fackenheim regarded it as the specific duty of thinkers and scholars to assume responsibility to probe this (...) historical event for its impact on the human future and to make its immense ramifications evident. In Emil Fackenheim's Post-Holocaust Thought and Its Philosophical Sources, scholars consider important figures in the history of philosophy--including Kant, Hegel, Heidegger, and Strauss--and trace how Fackenheim's philosophical confrontations with each of them shaped his overall thought. This collection details which philosophers exercised the greatest influence on Fackenheim, and how he diverged from them. Incorporating widely varying approaches, the contributors in the volume wrestle with this challenge historically, politically, and philosophically in order to illuminate the depths of Fackenheim's own thought. (shrink)

Judaism, enlightenment, and the end of theodicy -- The shadowed violence of culture -- Survivor testimony and the Hegelian subject -- Ethics and ontology in Auschwitz and after -- Traumatic history -- The art of separation from chemistry to racial science -- The work of genocide -- Conclusion: a new humanism?.

Hans Baron, Karl Popper, Leo Strauss and Erich Auerbach were among the many German-speaking Jewish intellectuals who fled continental Europe with the rise of Nazism in the 1930s. Their scholarship, though not normally considered together, is studied here to demonstrate how, despite their different disciplines and distinctive modes of working, they responded polemically in the guise of traditional scholarship to their shared trauma. For each, the political calamity of European fascism was a profound intellectual crisis, requiring an intellectual response (...) which Weinstein and Zakai now contextualize, ideologically and politically. They exemplify just how extensively, and sometimes how subtly, 1930s and 1940s scholarship was used not only to explain, but to fight the political evils that had infected modernity, victimizing so many. An original perspective on a popular area of research, this book draws upon a mass of secondary literature to provide an innovative and valuable contribution to twentieth-century intellectual history. (shrink)

“Think of the disaster” is the first injunction of thought when faced with the disaster that struck European Jews during the Shoah. Thinking of the disaster means understanding why the Shoah was able to occur in civilized Europe, moulded by humane reason and the values of progress and enlightenment. It means thinking of a possibility for philosophy’s future. Walter Benjamin, who wrestled with these problems ahead of time, Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, and Emmanuel Levinas had the courage, the strength (...) and the perception—and sometimes simply the desperation—to think about what had happened. Moved by indignation and the desire to testify, they felt the urgent need to address the cries of agony of Auschwitz’s victims in their thinking. (shrink)

L'art d'après Auschwitz n'existe pas. Aucun artiste ne se réclame ouvertement de ce qui ne saurait être considéré comme un mouvement, et qui est à peine une appellation commune. Ceux qui le font plus timidement sentent bien qu'il y a dans leur démarche quelque chose de déplacé, qu'une telle revendication impose qu'ils la justifient avec d'infinies précautions auxquelles doivent pareillement s'astreindre les historiens de l'art qui cherchent à mettre en évidence, non pas l'existence de l'art d'après Auschwitz, donc, mais le (...) fait qu'il constitue cependant une dimension - une dimension peut-être fondamentale - de l'art contemporain. (shrink)

This book traces the evolution of Holocaust memory through the prism of place as it passes from survivors to their children and grandchildren.

Desde tiempos inmemoriales, filosofía y teoría política han deambulado por senderos paralelos: en unas ocasiones, prestándose armas mutuamente; en otras, sin embargo, arrinconándose y asfixiándose. A causa de la complejidad de los sucesos acaecidos en el pasado siglo XX, a aquella conflictiva pero siempre enriquecedora relación se unieron compañeras como la teología, la sociología o la antropología, que desearon aportar algo de luz en el opaco contexto de las guerras mundiales, el desarrollo del nazismo, la Revolución rusa, la emergencia de (...) los fascismos, etc. En este novedoso libro, Roberto Navarrete Alonso se ocupa de dos figuras coetáneas y del todo fundamentales: Carl Schmitt (1888-1985) y Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929). El autor se propone, a partir del estudio conjunto de estos pensadores, reflexionar sobre el Holocausto, sobre la Shoah o Catástrofe, abriendo de nuevo el insoslayable problema de la vertiente política del mal y su acaecimiento en la historia. El presente volumen se hace cargo de un nexo tan capital como inexplorado en el seno del pensamiento político-filosófico de comienzos del XX, analizando las fuentes, los cruces, los encuentros y desencuentros que tuvieron lugar entre Schmitt –referencia inexcusable de la reflexión jurídico-política del pasado siglo– y Rosenzweig –autor de la La estrella de la redención–. (shrink)

Why do good people suffer? Does fate control the events that come our way? What is the difference between the reactions of men and women when a disaster occurs? Why did Jewish mothers kill their children in Ashkenazi countries? How did the Jews of Yemen tell about the deportation they were sentenced to? What explanation did the Hasidic Rebbe provide for what happened in the Holocaust? This is an unexpected journey through the Jewish bookcase - sometimes it is (...) amusing, sometimes horrifying, but always fascinating. A journey following one question and many answers, which expresses the human need to give meaning and meaning to the enigma of existence. (shrink)

The interrupted absolute : art, religion and the "new categorical imperative" -- "The ever-broken promise of happiness" : interrupting art, or Adorno -- "Absolute insomnia" : interrupting religion, or Levinas -- "To preserve the question" : interrupting the book, or Jabès -- Conclusion : sharing the imperative.

In this major intellectual history, Ira Katznelson examines the works of Hannah Arendt, Robert Dahl, Richard Hofstadter, Harold Lasswell, Charles Lindblom, Karl Polanyi, and David Truman, detailing their engagement with the larger project of reclaiming the West's moral bearing.

This is a comprehensive collection of readings from the work of Theodor Adorno, one of the most influential German thinkers of the twentieth century. What took place in Auschwitz revokes what Adorno termed the “Western legacy of positivity,” the innermost substance of traditional philosophy. The prime task of philosophy then remains to reflect on its own failure, its own complicity in such events. Yet in linking the question of philosophy to historical occurrence, Adorno seems not to have (...) abandoned his paradoxical, life-long hope that philosophy might not be entirely closed to the idea of redemption. He prepares for an altogether different praxis, one no longer conceived in traditionally Marxist terms but rather to be gleaned from “metaphysical experience.” In this collection, Adorno's literary executor has assembled the definitive introduction to his thinking. Its five sections anatomize the range of Adorno's concerns: “Toward a New Categorical Imperative,” “Damaged Life,” “Administered World, Reified Thought,” “Art, Memory of Suffering,” and “A Philosophy That Keeps Itself Alive.” A substantial number of Adorno’s writings included appear here in English for the first time. This collection comes with an eloquent introduction from Rolf Tiedemann, the literary executor of Adorno’s work. (shrink)

Among the topics explored in this book are ways of viewing the soul, the relation between body and soul, environmentalist thought, the phenomenon of torture, and the philosophical and theological warrants for genocide. Presenting an analysis of abstract modes of thought that have contributed to genocide, the book argues that a Jewish model of concrete thinking may inform our understanding of the abstractions that can lead to genocide. Its aim is to draw upon distinctively Jewish categories of thought (...) to demonstrate how the conceptual defacing of the other human being serves to promote the murder of peoples, and to suggest a way of thinking that might help prevent genocide. (shrink)

Die Beziehung zwischen Theodor W. Adorno und Paul Celan steckt voller Widersprüche. Ihr Briefwechsel aus den sechziger Jahren ist spärlich, persönliche Begegnungen sind selten. Hinzu kommt: Celan fühlt sich von Adornos ersten skeptischen Sätzen über Gedichte nach Auschwitz angegriffen und äussert sich privat überaus kritisch zu Adornos Haltung zum Judentum. Andererseits liest Celan intensiv Adornos Schriften und wünscht sich einen Essay von ihm über sein Werk. Und Adorno? Der schreibt zwar nicht den versprochenen Essay, hält aber Celan für den bedeutendsten (...) deutschsprachigen Lyriker nach 1945. Der Grund für diese wechselseitige Wertschätzung liegt in der ausgeprägten Affinität ihrer Dichtung und Philosophie, die ein Grossteil der Forschung bis heute unterschätzt. Ausgehend von der aporetischen Situation von Kunst nach Auschwitz wenden sie sich dem Absurden und Dunklen zu und entwerfen eine Ästhetik des Bilderverbots. 'Kunstfeindschaft ' und 'Involution' heissen die Schlagworte ihrer geistigen Verwandtschaft, die jedoch eine wichtige Grenze hat. Während jüdische Erfahrungen Celans Lyrik tief prägen, subsumiert Adorno diese oft genug seiner -- wenn auch negativen -- dialektischen Logik. (shrink)

An understanding of what we mean by the present is one of the key issues in literature, philosophy, and culture today, but also one of the most neglected and misunderstood. _Present Hope_ develops a fascinating philosophical understanding of the present, approaching this question via discussions of the nature of historical time, the philosophy of history, memory, and the role of tragedy. Andrew Benjamin shows how we misleadingly view the present as simply a product of chronological time, ignoring the (...) role of history and memory. Accordingly, discussion of what is meant by the present disappears from philosophical concern. To draw attention to this absence, Andrew Benjamin introduces the notion of hope and asks what this concept can tell us about the present. At the heart of the outstanding work is an emphasis on the relation between hope and the Jewish tradition. Through discussions of philosophical responses to the Holocaust, the work of Walter Benjamin, Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum, and the poetry of Paul Celan, _Present Hope_ shows how we must look beyond the purely philosophical horizon to understand the present we live in. (shrink)

The rest is commentary.--Faith and knowledge.--The dynamics of emancipation.

This booklet deals in the form of "impromptus" with philosophy and philosophers in the "Third Reich" and the interesting story of post-war German philosophy to just ignore this topic.

This is a comprehensive collection of readings from the work of Theodor Adorno, one of the most influential German thinkers of the twentieth century. What took place in Auschwitz revokes what Adorno termed the “Western legacy of positivity,” the innermost substance of traditional philosophy. The prime task of philosophy then remains to reflect on its own failure, its own complicity in such events. Yet in linking the question of philosophy to historical occurrence, Adorno seems not to have (...) abandoned his paradoxical, life-long hope that philosophy might not be entirely closed to the idea of redemption. He prepares for an altogether different praxis, one no longer conceived in traditionally Marxist terms but rather to be gleaned from “metaphysical experience.” In this collection, Adorno's literary executor has assembled the definitive introduction to his thinking. Its five sections anatomize the range of Adorno's concerns: “Toward a New Categorical Imperative,” “Damaged Life,” “Administered World, Reified Thought,” “Art, Memory of Suffering,” and “A Philosophy That Keeps Itself Alive.” A substantial number of Adorno’s writings included appear here in English for the first time. This collection comes with an eloquent introduction from Rolf Tiedemann, the literary executor of Adorno’s work. (shrink)

This book explores the phenomenon of the Third Reich from a philosophical perspective. It concentrates on the ways in which the subjects and experiences of Nazi Germany, the Holocaust and Anti-Semitism are conceived by eight German thinkers from the Continental tradition. These eight intellectuals include Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Karl Löwith, Carl Schmitt, Ernst Jünger, Jean Améry, Hans-Georg Gadamer, and Jan Assmann. Based on careful philosophical examinations of both known and unknown texts of these eight thinkers (including an English translation (...) of two forgotten texts by Schmitt and Jünger), this study exposes and then explores the tension between ideology and philosophy, between submission to authority and genuine critical thinking, all of which constitute the essence of the Continental philosophical tradition. This title was made Open Access by libraries from around the world through Knowledge Unlatched.--Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Judaism and Modernity: Philosophical Essays challenges the philosophical presentation of Judaism as the sublime Other of modernity. Gillian Rose continues to develop a philosophical alternative to deconstruction and post-modernism by critically re-engaging the social and political issues at stake in every reconstruction. The chapters cover Judaism and philosophy, ethics and law (Halacha), 'The Future of Auschwitz', post-modern theology, Judaism and architecture, Judaism in Hegel, Nietzsche, Adorno and Derrida, and modern Jewish thinkers - Cohen, Rosenzweig, Buber, Benjamin, Strauss, Arendt, (...) Weil and Levinas. The opposition between philosophical reason and Judaic ethics is shown to ruin the possibility of critical reflection and of political action. The risks of critical rationality are reformulated for modern philosophy and for modern Jewish thought. (shrink)

This book offers the first sustained multi-disciplinary investigation of the question and status of ethics in light of the current "return to ethics" underway in a variety of critical fields. While the questions of ethics have become increasingly important in recent years for many fields within the humanities, there has been no single volume that seeks to address the emergence of this concern with ethics across the disciplinary spectrum. Given this lack in currently available critical and secondary texts, and also (...) the urgency of the issues addressed by the critics assembled here, the time is right for a collection of this nature. By assembling the work of nine critics from among these disciplines-including philosophy, women's studies, cultural studies, anthropology, literary studies, and history-this collection will help to frame the conversation on the status of ethics in the coming years. One of the great features of the book is the very high quality of work and the importance within the critical scene of many of its contributors. Contributors: Lowell Gallagher, Richard J. Golsan, David E. Johnson, Howard Marchitello, Kelly Oliver, Marshall Sahlins, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Tzvetan Todorov, Krzysztof Ziarek. (shrink)

What part do feature films play in creating our notions of history? Using the example of Dutch and German feature films about the resistance, the author shows how these long-neglected films succeeded in injecting competing interpretations of history into public commemorative culture in both the Netherlands and Germany.

A new moral theory from an Israeli philosopher and activist emphasizing theexistential and political nature of evil.

Pourquoi l'histoire et la mémoire sont-ils des outils pour penser la démocratie? Face aux crimes contre l'humanité plus que jamais d'actualité, se dessine une responsabilité commune essentielle : celle de cultiver, transmettre l'histoire et en tirer les enseignements. Retraçant sa propre histoire et celle de sa famille, Annette Wieviorka, disposant des témoignages de ses parents, d'archives mais aussi de ses propres souvenirs, dessine d'un même geste les contours d'une biographie collective de ce monde qui a connu l'impensable Shoah. Le souvenir (...) des millions de victimes, cette conscience du temps qui passe, ce sentiment d'appartenir à la dernière génération à pouvoir restituer la mémoire se révèlent vivaces et fondateurs. Surtout, Annette Wieviorka montre que le vrai danger pour la démocratie est dans l'oubli de l'histoire, la grande et celle familiale, quand s'imposent la haine de l'Autre, l'antisémitisme et les extrémismes en tous genres."--Page 4 of cover. (shrink)

La 4e de couv. indique : "La destinée d'Éliane Amado Lévy-Valensi est unique. Cette philosophe, psychanalyste et intellectuelle juive a longtemps fait figure d'héroïne occultée d'une époque qu'elle a pourtant marquée de ses batailles avec ténacité, générosité et constance. Le cours de sa vie et ses engagements audacieux ont conditionné son œuvre et accompagné les soubresauts d'un XXe siècle fécond entre désespoir et espérances. Née en Provence au lendemain du Premier Conflit mondial dans une famille de Juifs séfarades assimilés, elle (...) subit la Shoah de plein fouet avant de céder au chant des sirènes du jeune Israël. Cet essai rend justice à la mémoire d'une femme libre et engagée, philosophe et psychanalyste, dont l'œuvre pluridisciplinaire mérite admiration et reconnaissance.". (shrink)

This volume is a scholarly tribute to Fackenheim’s memory. It covers a wide spectrum of Fackenheim’s work including biographical, philosophical, and theological aspects of his thought that have not been addressed adequately in the past. Elie Wiesel, a close personal friend to Fackenheim for over 30 years, has provided the Foreword for the volume.

Refleksja etyczna, niezależnie od jej zaangażowania w rozstrzyganie zagadnień filozoficznych czy metafizycznych, nie powinna tracić zdolności identyfikacji zła w doświadczeniu. Życzyłbym sobie, aby ta książka mogła służyć pomocą w podtrzymywaniu tej zdolności. Z Wprowadzenia.

My preoccupation with witnessing mutated through several phases before it turned into the book you are holding. It germinated while I was writing my PhD dissertation at the Cohn Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas at Tel Aviv University, when the gulf between the theory of testimony that so enchanted contemporary thinking around the ethics of memory on the one hand, and the humanitarian practice of witnessing I was studying on the other, first struck me (...) as philosophically awkward and politically suspect. (shrink)