Antisemitismus bei Kant und anderen Denkern der Aufklarung (review)

The book (in English: “Anti-Semitism in Kant and Other Enlightenment Thinkers”) is a collection of winning essays from a competition announced in 1997 by the Philosophisch-Politischen Akademie in Germany under the topic “Antisemitic and Anti-Judaic Themes in Enlightenment Thinkers.” The book addresses the idea that the enlightenment ideals of the authority of reason and human dignity would preclude antisemitism and religious intolerance.

The book consists of four essays: Bettina Stangneth, “Antisemitische und Antijudaistische Motive bei Immanuel Kant? Tatsachen, Meinungen, Ursachen” (“Antisemitic and Anti-Judaic Themes in I. Kant? Facts, Opinions, Causes”), Gerald Hubmann, “Sittlichkeit und Recht: Die jüdische Emanzipationsfrage bei Jakob Friedrich Fries und anderen Staatsdenkern des Deutschen Idealismus” (“Morality and Law: The Issue of Jewish Emancipation in J. Fr. Fries and Other Political Thinkers of German Idealism”), Almut Rüllmann, “Adolph Freiherr Knigge und die Juden” (“The Baron Adolph Knigge and the Jews”), and Martin Damken, “Theoretischer oder praktischer Gott: Versuch einer Annäherung an Salomon Maimons vielfach zerrissene Einstellung zum Judentum”(“Theoretical or Practical God: An Attempt at Understanding S. Maimon’s Many Conflicting Positions on Jewishness”). As the titles indicate, the essays are discussions of German enlightenment thinkers from the late eighteenth century into the early 1800s.

The condition of the Jewish population in the German states during this period was one of oppression and exclusion (Rüllmann). Jews were mostly confined to separate communities in towns and cities, often in great poverty. They were denied citizens’ rights. With few exceptions, the only professions available to Jews were various forms of trade and financial dealings. And Jews were the victims of widespread religious intolerance by the Christian majority. The emancipation of Jews and their integration in German society were natural concerns of enlightenment thought. Most of the thinkers discussed in the book have views, either explicit or by implication, concerning the conditions of such emancipation and integration.

As is to be expected in this kind of book, there are no agreed-upon definitions of antisemitism and anti-Judaism. Stangneth distinguishes between antisemitism and anti-Judaism as follows: antisemitism is any form of hostility towards Jews that is not linked to questions of religion; anti-Judaism is animosity towards Jews related to questions of religion. She finds evidence of antisemitism in Kant (1724–1804) in the form of negative generalizations about Jews as a people, for example as a people of profiteers and opportunists who take advantage of others’ needs and labors. Not even the most prominent German enlightenment thinker escaped the popularly held prejudices of his time. In a section on anecdotal evidence concerning Kant’s relationships with Jewish acquaintances and friends, Stangneth shows that such prejudices did not in his case amount to hostility against Jewish individuals. Kant maintained friendly relations with Marcus Hertz, whom he named to be the respondent at his inaugural disputation (1770), and to Moses Mendelssohn, a prominent member of the Jewish enlightenment movement in Germany, the Haskala.

Stangneth finds in Kant expression of anti-Judaism with his claim that Jewish faith is not a true religion, because it lacks the foundation and character of religion proper, rational religion. According to Kant’s concept of rational religion, religious faith derives from morality. Our acknowledgement of being subject to moral obligation commits us to believing in one supreme God as the guarantor of reward for good deeds. Since morality has its basis in reason, religion also has this basis. Judaism, with its notion of Jews as God’s chosen people, lacks the universality of rational religion. The God of Jewish faith is merely a world sovereign. Judaic laws have the character of political laws, backed by force, so Judaism lacks the ethical or moral dimension of religion proper, according to Kant.

Stangneth also discusses Halberstam’s essay “From Kant to Auschwitz,” and she includes a collection of relevant excerpts from some of Kant’s writings. The collection provides a good basis for examining antisemitism...