Voltaire Against the Jews, or The Limits of Toleration (Palgrave Critical Studies of Antisemitism and Racism)

This book challenges Voltaire’s doctrine of toleration. Can a Jew be a philosopher? And if so, at what cost? It seeks to provide an organic interpretation of Voltaire’s attitude towards Jews, problematising the issue against the background of his theory of toleration. To date, no monograph entirely dedicated to this theme has been written. This book attempts to provide an answer to the crucial questions that have emerged in the past fifty years through a process of reading and analysis that starts with the publication of Des Juifs (1756), and ends with the posthumous publication of the apocryphal article ‘Juifs’ in the Kehl edition of the Dictionnaire Philosophique (1784). Acknowledgements Contents Abbreviations Chapter 1: Introduction The Century of Tolerance and Its Most Famous Standard-Bearer The Charge of Anti-Semitism From Voltaire’s Anti-Semitism to His Attitude Towards Jews Open Questions References Chapter 2: The Irreverent Hermeneut A Profane Story An Ignorant and Barbarous People The Involuntary Slanderer Private Self-Criticism and the Jewish Philosophe References Chapter 3: The “Tolerated” Rabbi Voltaire Plays the Jew An Appropriate Regime for Catholic France The Right to Intolerance Towards the Extremely Tolerant The Most Uncivilized Were Also Cannibals The Strategist of Ridicule References Chapter 4: The Forgetful Genealogist The Anti-Semite Memmius “Your Servant, Your Friend, Your Brother” Anthropophagous Idolaters Calculating Animals The Rabbis, Unexpected Allies References Chapter 5: The Aspiring Godfather An Expert in Anti-Judaism Persecuted Like a Jew An Ars Oratoria Between Omissions and Concessions The “Jew of a Great King” The Politician Does Not Stop Being a Theologian References Chapter 6: Conclusion An Article Constructed Post-Mortem Apologists Not Necessarily Without Prejudice Possible Answers References Chapter 7: Epilogue: Did Voltaire Make an Exception for a Certain Jewish “Philosopher”? References Bibliography A) Voltaire’s Works B) Other Primary Sources C) Historical Editions of Primary Sources D) Other Philosophical Texts E) Specific Secondary Sources on Voltaire and the Jews (in Order of Publication) F) Other Secondary Sources Containing Elements on Voltaire and the Jews (in Order of Publication) G) Secondary Sources on Other Aspects of Voltaire’s Thought and Biography H) Other Secondary Sources Index