Jews Out of the Question

<p><b>A provocative study of opposition to anti-Semitism in contemporary political philosophy.</b></p><p>In post-Holocaust philosophy anti-Semitism has come to be seen as a paradigmatic political and ideological evil. <i>Jews Out of the Question</i> 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 <i>against</i> Jews but in thinking <i>of</i> 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.</p>