Individual and Collective Responsibility [Hardcover]

Peter A. French (Editor)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 297 pages
• Publisher: Schenkman Books; Rev Sub edition (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870470701
• ISBN-13: 978-0870470707
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,108,536 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Are we all just following orders?, November 5, 1998

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This review is from: Individual and Collective Responsibility (Hardcover)

Being German and having lived through World War II, I have always felt some obligation to understand group guilt and collective responsibility. Religion often relates (some would say causes) the former, but rarely the latter. This work satisfies this genuine need. It is on a very short list of recommended books on the topic. In fact, it is surely required reading for college courses on the topic. But it should be read also by expert witnesses, authentic journalists, moral guidance specialists, teachers of ethics, and -- we might even hope -- literate politicians and their think tanks. Ideally, it will be like the best medicine: preventative, not just curative. In this new edition, about a quarter of the book is by the editor. The style is therefore less uneven than in many anthologies. It includes all the previous chapters (each focused on the My Lai Massacre), but it adds four essays, two by the editor, which help to broaden the scope of the work to further warrant its title. My Lai, along with the Nuremberg trials, may always raise the question of moral guilt. The editor notes the application of this philosophical consideration to other tragedies in modern human history, including "Dachau, Dresden, Hiroshima, Wounded Knee, Bophal, the explosions of Ford Pintos, Pan-Am 103, the Exxon Valdez, the pollution of the planet, world hunger, the Rodney King beating, and the Los Angeles riots." Unfortunately, there is no index and the bibliography includes nothing from the past 25 years. However, notes in each of the new chapters cite a few comparatively recent resources. Don Wigal, Ph.D. The Institute for Independent Studies