Uploaded September 2022 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Friday, July 1 2022 at Einstein Forum, Potsdam
Améry’s essay on the intellectual at Auschwitz is probably his most famous. Superficially a biographical description of why humanistic intellectuals like Améry found survival at Auschwitz more difficult than others, the essay darkly suggests that the intellect itself is no match for world-threatening evil. Why and how did he later write such powerful defences of the Enlightenment? I will seek to answer these questions while discussing the prescience of his critiques of two most powerful 20th century counter-Enlightenment thinkers, Adorno and Foucault.
Friday, July 1 2022 at Einstein Forum, Potsdam
Améry’s essay on the intellectual at Auschwitz is probably his most famous. Superficially a biographical description of why humanistic intellectuals like Améry found survival at Auschwitz more difficult than others, the essay darkly suggests that the intellect itself is no match for world-threatening evil. Why and how did he later write such powerful defences of the Enlightenment? I will seek to answer these questions while discussing the prescience of his critiques of two most powerful 20th century counter-Enlightenment thinkers, Adorno and Foucault.
