Hannah Peacman is going to present a working paper on 'The "dybbuk" returns. Jewish traditions in philosophy. A systematic appraoch'

Hannah Peaceman presents the first part of the third chapter of her PhD-project on "Jewish traditions in philosophy in the 19th century and their potential for questions of political philosophy today". The chapter deals with the meaning of "Jewish" in the context of philosophy. The first question is, how the term can be defined without excluding contradictionary, changing and ambigous meanings. The second question is, where Jewish traditions in philosophy are usually located. The claim of the chapter is that Jewish traditions in philosophy can be found at the boarders of philosophy, "Jewish" serves as a characteristic of distinction. Vice versa, this text shows how the exclusion of Jewish traditions in philosophy relies on unphilosophic premises. Further, it argues that their lies a potential in these Jewish perspectives for a critical review of philosophical aspirations to universalism that is determined by exclusion of differences and contradictions. In this sense the "dybbuk" returns.

Hannah Peacman presents a working paper on 'Jewish Radicalism as Radical Diversity? Radical thought in Jewish Perspectives on the Jewish Question in Early 19th Century Germany'

This paper is work in progress for a chapter in a volume on Jewish Radicalism. At the same time, it is my first attempt to bring together my theoretical approach and the sources that I am using in my PhD project. It works like a microstudy.
In the paper I discuss the question, what the connection was between the so called Jewish Question and Jewish Radicalism in the 19th century? I shortly indicate the expected answers by looking at Socialist and Zionist approaches. Rather, I show that there was a third strand of radical thinking in Jewish answers to the Jewish Question that is not usually taken as such. I argue that this radicalism was implicit in the Jewish debate on emancipation of Jews into bourgeois society. It was grounded in the mode of engagement of these thinkers with Enlightenment. These Jews did not define themselves as radicals nor are they usually understood as such. In fact, their claim of full emancipation does not seem radical, but moderate – the realization of the core principle of bourgeois society. I claim, however, that their critique of the anti-emancipatory anti-Jewish moments of Enlightenment is radical because it already tends to transcend this society. By showing how ideals of freedom and equality did not apply universally to Jews, these critics hinted at the immanent contradictions of bourgeois’ society.

Hannah Peaceman presents a working paper on 'Systematic questions of Jewish political Philosophy'

This project aims to tackle the universality, secularity and practice of Jewish political Philosophy in the 19th century and until the Shoah. Reference-points are Jewish-German perspectives that were involved in political debates in magazines and newspapers until the Shoah. They have not been systematically accounted on since then from a philosophical perspective. The focus lies around the debates on the “Jewish Question”. Jewish perspectives provided important ideas on political emancipation and societal alternatives in the 19th century. In this paper I sort out my material, present criteria for the selection of sources and offer a first interpretation of an article in the journal "Sulamith".