Echoes from the Holocaust: Philosophical Reflections on a Dark TimeTemple University Press, 2009 - 472 pages The murder of six million Jewish men, women, and children during World War II was an act of such barbarity as to constitute one of the central events of our time; yet a list of the major concerns of professional philosophers since 1945 would exclude the Holocaust. This collection of twenty-three essays, most of which were written expressly for this volume, is the first book to focus comprehensively on the profound issues and philosophical significance of the Holocaust. The essays, written for general as well as professional readers, convey an extraordinary range of factual information and philosophical reflection in seeking to identify the haunting meanings of the Holocaust. Among the questions addressed are: How should philosophy approach the Holocaust? What part did the philosophical climate play in allowing Hitlerism its temporary triumph? What is the philosophical climate today and what are its probable cultural effects? Can philosophy help our culture to become a bulwark against future agents of evil? The multiple dimensions of the Holocaust-historical, sociological, psychological, religious, moral, and literary-are collected here for concentrated philosophical interpretations. |
Contents
3 | |
Assault on Morality | 51 |
HOLOCAUST Moral Indifference as the Form of Modern Evil | 53 |
WHAT PHILOSOPHY CAN AND CANNOT SAY ABOUT EVIL | 91 |
LIBERALISM AND THE HOLOCAUST An Essay on Trust and the BlackJewish Relationship | 105 |
THE DILEMMA OF CHOICE IN THE DEATHCAMPS | 118 |
ON THE IDEA OF MORAL PATHOLOGY | 128 |
THE RIGHT WAY TO ACT Indicting the Victims | 149 |
THE CONCEPT OF GOD AFTER AUSCHWITZ A Jewish Voice | 292 |
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN AFTER AUSCHWITZ | 306 |
CONCENTRATION CAMPS AND THE END OF THE LIFEWORLD | 327 |
LANGUAGE AND GENOCIDE | 341 |
Challenges to the Understanding | 363 |
SOCIAL SCIENCE TECHNIQUES AND THE STUDY OF CONCENTRATION CAMPS | 365 |
THE CRISIS IN KNOWING AND UNDERSTANDING THE HOLOCAUST | 379 |
THE POLITICS OF SYMBOLIC EVASION Germany and the Aftermath of the Holocaust | 396 |
ON LOSING TRUST IN THE WORLD | 163 |
ETHICS EVIL AND THE FINAL SOLUTION | 181 |
Echoes from the Death Camps | 199 |
THE HOLOCAUST AS A TEST OF PHILOSOPHY | 201 |
THE HOLOCAUST AND HUMAN PROGRESS | 223 |
THE HOLOCAUST MORAL THEORY AND IMMORAL ACTS | 245 |
TECHNOLOGY AND GENOCIDE Technology as a Form of Life | 262 |
Other editions - View all
Echoes from the Holocaust: Philosophical Reflections on a Dark Time Alan Rosenberg No preview available - 1990 |
Echoes from the Holocaust: Philosophical Reflections on a Dark Time Alan Rosenberg,Gerald Eugene Myers No preview available - 1988 |
Common terms and phrases
action Alan Rosenberg anti-Semitism Arendt Ariel Auschwitz authority become behavior believe bureaucratic Christian committed concentration camp concept concern context culture Dawidowicz death camps destruction Eichmann Einsatzgruppen Elie Wiesel Endlösung essay ethical European euthanasia event evidence evil example existence experience explain extermination Fackenheim fact Final Solution Franz Stangl gas chambers genocide German ghetto Hannah Arendt happened Hilberg Himmler historians Hitler Holocaust horror human Ibid idea ideology incomprehensible individual issue Jewish Jewry Jews Judenrat Kren labor language life-world live mass murder means mercy killing Milgram modern moral indifference moral pathology motives National nature Nazism never party person philosophy political possible prisoners problem progress psychological question Raul Hilberg reality reason resistance responsibility role Rudolf Höss rules sense Sereny significant social morality society Stangl suggest survive survivors Third Reich tion Treblinka unique University Press values victims York