module
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
PHL3046: The Holocaust and Society
This module descriptor refers to the 2018/9 academic year.
Module Aims
This is an interdisciplinary course, and not as such a history of the Holocaust. It combines historical and social scientific inquiry with philosophical reflection on the nature and significance of the Holocaust and (possibly) kindred events, processes and institutions. You will draw on theories, methodologies and concepts from sociology, social psychology, historical explanation and moral philosophy. Issues to be explored include: questions on what kind of event the Holocaust was, what kind of knowledge and understanding it affords, and its relationship to other events and practices of a putatively similar kind; different approaches to explaining the causes, conditions and essential features of the Holocaust; the nature of evil and the moral character of perpetrators and other participants; the relationship between the Holocaust and modernity; reflection on human nature, civilisation, social organisation and social progress; questions on perpetrator motivation and action, moral responsibility and blame.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
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| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Think philosophically on the nature, origins and causes of the Holocaust. 2. Reflect critically on the significance and import of the Holocaust for wider conceptions of the social organisation and ethical life of modern societies 3. Examine critically and assess some of the leading philosophical, social scientific and interpretative attempts to account for socially organised evil- and wrong-doing in modern societies. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Bring philosophical analysis to the evaluation of a range of social scientific and historical explanations and theories of the Holocaust and to identify and reflect on the puzzling and disturbing issues that they generate. 5. Reflect critically on the core social scientific and historical disciplines as explanatory and interpretive endeavours and assess their success and limitations in making sense of the Holocaust and other kindred events, processes and institutions. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. Critically reflect on, and examine, taken-for-granted moral and cultural beliefs and values 7. Analyse and communicate, clearly and directly, a range of philosophical, theoretical, explanatory, epistemological, ontological, and normative issues arising from study of the Holocaust, genocide and other kindred events, processes and institutions.] 8. Work independently, within a limited time frame, and without access to external sources, to complete a specified task |