Undergraduate Module Descriptor

SOC2046A: The Holocaust, Genocide and Society

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

This is an interdisciplinary course, and not as such a history of the Holocaust or detailed comparative study of genocide. The overarching questions you will pursue are: What kind of events are the Holocaust and genocide, how do they fit into and relate to the modern societies in which they occur, and what are their ramifications and significance for the normal civilised lives that we currently enjoy? The module combines historical and social scientific inquiry with philosophical reflection on the nature and significance of the Holocaust and possibly kindred events, processes and institutions. Reflecting its interdisciplinary ethos, the module is delivered simultaneously to social science students under SOC3046a and philosophy students under PHL3046a.This is because historical and social scientific explanation and understanding of the Holocaust and kindred phenomena inherently raises questions of a philosophical nature. The module therefore draws on theories, methodologies and concepts from sociology, social psychology, historical explanation and moral philosophy. Issues you will likely explore include: questions on the distinctiveness and newness of genocide, whether the Holocaust is a unique event, 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, genocide and modernity; reflection on human nature, civilisation, social organisation and social progress; questions on perpetrator motivation and action, moral responsibility and blame.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. Think social scientifically about the nature, origins and causes of the Holocaust in particular and genocide more generally. 2. Reflect on the significance and import of the Holocaust and genocide for wider conceptions of the social organisation and ethical life of modern societies. 3. To examine 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. Apply and evaluate a range of social scientific and historical explanations and theories of the Holocaust and genocide and to identify and reflect on the puzzling and disturbing issues that they generate 5. Reflect 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, genocide and other kindred events, processes and institutions
Personal and Key Skills	6. Reflect on, and examine critically, taken-for-granted moral and cultural beliefs and values 7. Analyse and communicate, clearly and directly, a range of social scientific, 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.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

What was the Holocaust and what can be learned from studying it?
The concept and practice of genocide
Is the Holocaust a unique? Theoretical and conceptual questions
Is the Holocaust a unique? Epistemic and political questions
The Dialectic of Enlightenment, civilisation and progress
The Modernity thesis: is the Holocaust an essentially modern phenomenon?
The nature of evil: Radical or Banal?
Social psychology: situationist explanation and the fundamental attributional error
The ‘evil of banality’: critical reflection on the modernity and banality theses
Explaining direct perpetrators' actions: Browning's situationist explanation
Explaining direct perpetrators' actions: Goldhagen's cognitive explanation
Assessment of Browning's and Goldhagen's theories: a radical alternative?
Structure and agency in the Holocaust: ‘Intentionalist’ versus ‘functionalist’ conceptions
Rescue and resistance: supererogation, ordinary goodness and the social conditions of altruism
The Bystander effect and its significance in modern society
Normalisation of the Holocaust? Comparison & analogy with other genocides and examples of institutionalised wrong- and evil-doing
Holocaust denial
Knowledge, ignorance and moral responsibility
Collective responsibility/guilt, and problems of redress
Judgement and understanding: compatible or incompatible?

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44.5	255.5	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	33	22 x 1.5 hour weekly lecture
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	10	10 x fortnightly 1 hour smaller group seminars for further exploration of lecture and module themes and issues
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activities	1.5	Revision session
Guided independent study	130	Assigned readings associated with each lecture
Guided Independent Study	40	Preparation for essay 1
Guided Independent Study	45.5	Preparation for essay 2
Guided independent study	40	Preparation for exam. A variety of activities directed by module leader.

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).