Contents

Preface vii
1 Introduction: Sociology after the Holocaust 1
The Holocaust as the test of modernity 6
The meaning of the civilizing process 12
Social production of moral indifference 18
Social production of moral invisibility 24
Moral consequences of the civilizing process 27
2 Modernity, Racism, Extermination I 31
Some peculiarities of Jewish estrangement 33
Jewish incongruity from Christendom to modernity 37
Astride the barricades 41
The prismatic group 42
Modern dimensions of incongruity 46
The non-national nation 52
The modernity of racism 56
3 Modernity, Racism, Extermination II 61
From heterophobia to racism 62
Racism as a form of social engineering 66
From repellence to extermination 72
Looking ahead 77
4 The Uniqueness and Normality of the Holocaust 83
The problem 85
Genocide extraordinary 88
Peculiarity of modern genocide 93
Effects of the hierarchical and functional division of labour 98
Dehumanization of bureaucratic objects 102
The role of bureaucracy in the Holocaust 104
Bankruptcy of modern safeguards 107
Conclusions 111
5 Soliciting the Co-operation of the Victims 117
'Sealing off the victims 122
The 'save what you can' game 129
Individual rationality in the service of collective destruction 135
Rationality of self-preservation 142
Conclusion 149
6 The Ethics of Obedience (Reading Milgram) 151
Inhumanity as a function of social distance 155
Complicity after one's own act 157
Technology moralized 159
Free-floating responsibility 161
Pluralism of power and power of conscience 163
The social nature of evil 166
7 Towards a Sociological Theory of Morality 169
Society as a factory of morality 170
The challenge of the Holocaust 175
Pre-societal sources of morality 179
Social proximity and moral responsibility 184
Social suppression of moral responsibility 188
Social production of distance 192
Final remarks 198
8 Afterthought: Rationality and Shame 201
Social Manipulation of Morality: The European
Amain Prize Lecture 208
The Duty to Remember-But What?:
Afterword to the 2000 Edition 222
Notes 251