Discussing a central aspect of the experience of the Holocaust with a view to exploring its contemporary implications, this volume focuses on the figure of the bystander - the bystander to the destruction of the Jews of Europe and the bystander to more recent atrocities. Its goal is to consider the moral consequences of looking on without active response at persecution and suffering. Norman Geras argues that the tragedy of European Jewry has not yet found its reflection within political philosophy. He adapts an old idea ...
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Discussing a central aspect of the experience of the Holocaust with a view to exploring its contemporary implications, this volume focuses on the figure of the bystander - the bystander to the destruction of the Jews of Europe and the bystander to more recent atrocities. Its goal is to consider the moral consequences of looking on without active response at persecution and suffering. Norman Geras argues that the tragedy of European Jewry has not yet found its reflection within political philosophy. He adapts an old idea from within that tradition of enquiry, the idea of the social contract, to the task of thinking about the triangular relation between perpetrators, victims and bystanders, and draws a sombre conclusion from it. Geras goes on to ask how far this conclusion may be offset by the hypothesis of a universal duty to bring aid.
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