Philosophy after Auschwitz

Prof. i. R. Dr. Rolf Zimmermann

doi:10.5771/9783495989388

Summary

The latest terrorist attack by Hamas on Israel has brought the trauma of the Holocaust back into the focus of global politics. Philosophy after Auschwitz provides criteria for moral and political responsibility in relation to Israel's right to exist and Palestinian self-determination. This framework is based on an analysis of historical experience which affirms human rights in the context of conflicts with Nazism, Stalinism and their successors. Additionally, the current key question concerning the Middle East conflict is how Israeli-Palestinian coexistence can be achieved within a national and international framework, considering the experiences of the Shoah and Nakba, not only in terms of commemoration, but also realpolitik.

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Bibliographic data

Publication year: 2025
Publication date: 15.12.2025
ISBN-Print: 978-3-495-98937-1
ISBN-Online: 978-3-495-98938-8
Publisher: Karl Alber, Baden-Baden
Language: English
Pages: 300
Product type: Book Titles

1. Foreword No access
Introduction: Lessons of History in Times of War No access Pages 11 - 20
1. 1.1 From the ‘Radical Evil’ to the Rupture of Species No access
2. 1.2 Towards a Critical Hermeneutics of Morality: Beyond Kant, Korsgaard, Omri Boehm No access
3. 1. 1.3.1 What we can learn from Richard Rorty No access
  2. 1.3.2 Real History of Universalism and the Dynamics of Universalisation No access
4. 1. 1. 1.4.1.1 Conceptual Clarifications on NS-Morality No access
  2. 1. 1.4.2.1 Redemption Morality à la Trotsky and NS-Morality Compared No access
5. 1. 1.5.1 Situating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights No access
  2. 1.5.2 Justification: Universalism as Voluntative Egalitarianism and Its Implications No access
1. 1. 2.1.1 Moral Confrontation with History as Political Challenge No access
  2. 2.1.2 Adorno’s Categorical Imperative as Quest for Politics No access
2. 1. 2.2.1 German Basic Law and the Lessons of History No access
  2. 2.2.2 Dualist Democracy vs. Foundationalist Constitution No access
  3. 2.2.3 Basic Rights, Political Participation, Pragmatics of Power No access
  4. 2.2.4 Western Power Politics in International Conflicts No access
3. 1. 2.3.1 Auschwitz, Historical Responsibility, Political Ethics No access
  2. 2.3.2 Holocaust and Comparison of Historical Responsibility No access
  3. 2.3.3 Historical Responsibility and Legal Questions No access
  4. 2.3.4 International Law and Politics in Contemporary Conflict No access
4. 1. 2.4.1 Historical Discontinuity: Auschwitz vs. Postcolonialism No access
  2. 2.4.2 Never again! and the Legitimisation of Israel No access
  3. 2.4.3 Nobel Peace Prizes and Political Failure No access
  4. 2.4.4 Liberal Zionism, Palestinian Victimhood: Challenges for Politics No access
5. 1. 2.5.1 Wartime in Dispute: Right-wing Politics, Palestinian Terrorism – Is There Any Way Out? No access
  2. 2.5.2 Existential Emergency Threat, Nuclear Holocaust, International Law No access
Conclusion: The Holocaust in World Politics No access Pages 263 - 268
Bibliography No access Pages 269 - 294
Index of names No access Pages 295 - 300