Language:
English
Year of publication:
1997
Titel der Quelle:
Res Publica; a Journal of Legal and Social Philosophy
Angaben zur Quelle:
3,1 (1997) 35-59
Keywords:
Bauman, Zygmunt,
;
Rose, Gillian
;
Holocaust (Jewish theology)
Abstract:
Disputes the popular thesis presented by Zygmunt Bauman, in his "Modernity and the Holocaust, " that the Holocaust was made feasible by "the social norms and institutions of modernity" and by a mistaken stress on reason. Concurs with Gillian Rose (in her "Judaism and Modernity") in challenging the theory that modernism was a sufficient cause of Nazi bureaucratic mass murder, especially by "desk murderers." Criticizes the theory for its deterministic attitude based on the functionalist school of Holocaust historiography, and for confusing the "how?" and the "why?" of the Nazi genocide. Notes the theory's lack of attention to ideology, which is seen as having had a primary role in motivating mass murder, and its blurring of the distinction between potential and actual murderers. Considers the modernist theory to be nihilistic; it denies the possibility of moral choice and rejects the use of reason to learn what is taking place in society and to build political and social structures that protect human beings. Such a use of reason to protect humanity is presented as a response to Nazi dehumanization.
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