Judaism, Philosophy, and Psychoanalysis in Heidegger’s Ontology

In this book, Federico Dal Bo analyzes the question of Heidegger’s anti-Semitism from a deconstructive point of view, appealing not only to philosophy but also to psychoanalysis, gender studies, and critical studies. Deconstruction famously discourages simplistic oppositions whilst encouraging a more careful analysis of cultural and philosophical complexities of a semantic field. In the present case, a deconstructive analysis of Heidegger’s anti-Semitism rejects both a stern condemnation of his oeuvre and a simplistic acquittal from this infamous accusation. It rather suggests that the question of his anti-Semitism shall be examined from the broader perspective—from the end of metaphysics.

Federico Dal Bo (born 1973) holds a Ph.D. in Translation Studies from the University of Bologna (2005) and a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from the Free University of Berlin (2009). He has worked as a teaching assistant in Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Bologna, as a research assistant at the Institute for Jewish Studies at the Free University of Berlin, as a Marie Curie Fellow at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and as a research assistant at the University of Heidelberg. He currently is Senior Lecturer in Jewish Studies at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. His recent publications include: Emanation and Philosophy of Language: An Introduction to Joseph ben Abraham Giqatilla (Cherub Press, 2019), Deconstructing the Talmud: The Absolute Book (Routledge, 2019), and The Lexical Field of the Substantives of 'Word' in Ancient Hebrew: From the Bible to the Mishnah (Harrassowitz, 2021).