Overview
In this volume, eminent scholar Berel Lang brings the perspective of philosophical analysis to bear on issues related to the Holocaust. Setting out from a conception of philosophical ""witnessing"" that expands and illuminates the standard view of the witness, he confronts the question of what philosophy can add to the views of the Holocaust provided in other disciplines. Drawing on the philosophical areas of political theory, ethics, aesthetics, and the philosophy of history, he draws attention especially to the post-Holocaust emphasis on the concepts of genocide and ""group rights."" Lang's study, which emphasizes the moral choices that now face post-Holocaust thought, inspires the reader to think of the Holocaust in new ways, showing how its continued presence in contemporary consciousness affects areas of thought and practice not directly associated with that event.
Full Product Details
Author: Berel Lang
Publisher: Brandeis University Press
Imprint: Brandeis University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 2.30cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.544kg
ISBN: 9781584657415
ISBN 10: 1584657413
Pages: 260
Publication Date: 30 July 2009
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: No Longer Our Product
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
[An] important book . . . . Lang emphasizes that the historical and philosophical study of the Holocaust is a moral act that relates essentially to reality; in studying the Holocaust we attempt to establish, as accurately as possible, what actually happened, and to discover therein the truth about ourselves and our world. --Holocaust and Genocide Studies
[An] important book . . . . Lang emphasizes that the historical and philosophical study of the Holocaust is a moral act that relates essentially to reality; in studying the Holocaust we attempt to establish, as accurately as possible, what actually happened, and to discover therein the truth about ourselves and our world. Holocaust and Genocide Studies
[An] important book . . . . Lang emphasizes that the historical and philosophical study of the Holocaust is a moral act that relates essentially to reality; in studying the Holocaust we attempt to establish, as accurately as possible, what actually happened, and to discover therein the truth about ourselves and our world. --Holocaust and Genocide Studies
This is certainly the most perspicuous treatment of the philosophical issues arising in any effort to comprehend the Holocaust, in whatever terms, historiographical, artistic, moral, epistemological. Lang's discussions of such topics as representation, silence, denial, and the relation among religious, philosophical, and historical analyses of the Shoah are startlingly illuminating, showing especially how they resist conceptualization in conventional philosophical terms. In his treatment of this topic, Lang inevitably brings under criticism modern Western philosophy's inattention to events like the Holocaust. And he asks seriously whether Western philosophy can meaningfully address their most disquieting aspects. --Hayden White, University Professor, Emeritus, University of California & Professor of Comparative Literature, Stanford University
Author Information
BEREL LANG'S previous books include Act and Idea in the Nazi Genocide and Holocaust-Representation: Art within the Limits of History and Ethics. Since 2005, he has been Visiting Professor of Philosophy and Letters at Wesleyan University.
