Interdisciplinary materialism III: Elements of anti-Semitism

Workshop series of the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Kassel

The fact that capitalist society cannot be understood and criticized without a critique of anti-Semitism is a fundamental insight of Adorno and Horkheimer's critical theory, but one that no longer plays a central role in the pluralized critical theory of recent decades. In the face of increasing globalized anti-Semitism, especially but not only since 7 October 2023, it is urgently necessary to revisit the question of what theoretical tools critical theories have today for a critique of anti-Semitism as part of materialist social critique. As part of the series "Interdisciplinary Materialism" at the Institute of Philosophy at the University of Kassel, the workshop "Elements of Anti-Semitism" will formulate answers to this question and not only refer to the quasi-"classical texts" of Adorno and Horkheimer, but also analyze later models of critical theory with regard to their potential for a critique of anti-Semitism. In doing so, different forms of anti-Semitism, its psychological, social and political dimensions and its relationship to racism and sexism must be taken into account. Anti-Semitism thus emerges as the touchstone of an interdisciplinary critical theory, which deduces the necessity of its practical change from the critical determination of its objects.