A talk about language. What is the relation between the terms ‘Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ and ‘Holocaust’? Aren’t they just different names for the same event, adopted at different times? And if they do refer to different events, what exactly is the nature of that difference? One answer can be found in an entry in the USHMM’s on-line Holocaust Encyclopaedia, which describes the difference like this: ‘The Holocaust was the systematic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of Europe’s Jews from 1933 to 1945’. Against this, ‘the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” was the last stage of the Holocaust and took place from 1941 to… Read More »
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Professor Jane Caplan - 'What’s in a Name? From ‘The Final Solution of the Jewish Question’ to ‘The Holocaust’
Professor Timothy Williamson - 'Becoming a Philosopher'
My mother’s mother was an Ashkenazi Jew. To that extent, so am I. I’ll say something about that part of my family – it casts at least a little light on how I became a philosopher.
In my distant ancestry, there were rabbis. One of them tended to a community somewhere in Eastern Europe where the main source of income was smuggling arms across the nearby border. As a result of some treaty, the border moved, so his congregation all had to move too, and he was left without a job.
My great-grandfather was born in Warsaw. He was a feckless character, who wandered around Europe, and self-identified as a philosopher, which conveniently meant that his wife had to do all the work.
He left behind voluminous memoirs, frustratingly… Read More »