What can the Holocaust teach us about morality and ethics? Does the Holocaust pose a challenge for moral relativism? Zygmunt Bauman argues yes.
In Modernity and the Holocaust, Bauman argues that the Holocaust proves that societal rules, norms and standards cannot be the only source of morality. Perpetrators often argued in court that they were only following the law of their country. How can we judge them if morals are the product of a relative social context?
Instead, Bauman argues, the source of morality is in a fundamental responsibility to another in proximity. And there’s plenty of evidence for this. A biological repulsion to killing, for example. Or the distancing and division of labor that was required to scale the genocide. If proximity and responsibility are at the heart of a kind of moral objectivity, what might the consequences of this be?
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Sources:
Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust
[ Ссылка ]
Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men
Douglas Huneke, A Study of Christians Who Rescued Jews During the Nazi Era
Roger S. Gottlieb, Some Implications of the Holocaust for Ethics and Social Philosophy
Janusz Reykowski, The Justice Motive and Altruistic Helping: Rescuers of Jews in Nazi-Occupied Europe
Kristen Renwick Monroe, Cracking the Code of Genocide: The Moral Psychology of Rescuers, Bystanders, and Nazis during the Holocaust
Credits:
Zygmunt Bauman image: re:publica from Germany, CC BY 2.0, [ Ссылка ], via Wikimedia Commons
