Department of Philosophy, University of Saskatchewan

FYI

Be there or be square

Relic from a bygone era. Today’s challenge: Name that Head.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Department of Philosophy Colloquium: Freud and the Logic of Delusion in Horkheimer and Adorno’s ‘Elements of Anti-Semitism’
Speaker: Pierre-François Noppen, Professor, University of Saskatchewan
Date: Friday, March 31st @ 3:30- 5:00p.m.
Location: ESB 112

Abstract: In this talk, I examine Horkheimer and Adorno’s controversial account of “political anti-Semitism.” In essence, my reading tracks their critical appropriation of Freud. I first show how they draw on Totem and Taboo to develop the view that at the core of the Enlightenment process lies a prohibition on mimesis, or imitation. I then show how they rely on Freud’s view on identification and ego formation to claim that imitation is nevertheless what enables the formation of the rational self and the Enlightenment process. In my reading, it is this tension that creates the conditions for political anti-Semitism to emerge.