Essay in an Interdisciplinary Social Research (Based on the book by Z.Bauman “Modernity and The Holocaust”)

Authors

  • Vadim M. Rozin Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences

Keywords:

society, the Holocaust, social engineering, technology, government, ethics, morality, resistance, action, the reform

Abstract

The article analyzes the book by Z.Bauman “Modernity and The Holocaust”, recently translated into Russian language. The author reconstructs four main objectives set by Bauman: to give a scientific explanation of the Holocaust, to involve society and sociologists into the new understanding of this terrible phenomenon, to carry out criticism of sociological methods, to formulate the lessons of the Holocaust. Bauman discusses an approach to solving these problems: He thinks not only as a scientist, but also as a philosopher and methodologist, and as a publicist. The “findings” of Bauman during the solution of these problems are analyzed: a combination of different methods of study (historical, humanitarian, sociological, cultural, social, psychological, institutional), analysis of the impact of the social machines on the social consciousness and actions of individuals, the implementation process (social-engineering) approach breeding two anthropological horizons – societal and personal. The analysis methods used by the author are comparative analysis, methodological problematization, reconstruction of the text, hermeneutics and synthesis. The impression is that Bauman uses the Holocaust rather as a material to find new ways to study social phenomena. In addition, it shows that the main causes of the Holocaust were: an unusual set of circumstances, the European tradition of anti-Semitism, the implementation of the state of racial theory of the Nazis, social-engineering approach to society and the individual, the transformation of consciousness of individuals and of the masses under the influence of a well-functioning social technology.

Downloads

Published

2018-10-16

Issue

Section

Bookshelf