The Ordinary Quality of Resistance

From Milgram's Laboratory to the Village of Le Chambon

Bibliographic Data

ID10219796
AuthorsFrançois Rochat (University of Michigan, corresponding author), Andre Modigliani (University of Michigan)
Year1995
Volume51
Issue3
Pages195-210
Publication date1995-10-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Social Issues (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4537 • E-ISSN: 1540-4560
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1540-4560.1995.tb01341.x
OpenAlexW2163055787
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited15

According to Hannah Arendt's banality of evil thesis, endorsed by Milgram, it is possible for ordinary people to perform horrendous deeds when these are rendered routine and morally neutral through a framework of legitimate authority. But such a view of human capacities does nothing to explain the actions of equally ordinary people who defied authorities to rescue potential victims during the Holocaust. This article formulates a contrasting but noncontradictory conception—the ordinariness of goodness—and illustrates it by examining closely how the people of the French village of Le Chambon managed, during World War II, to resist the efforts of Vichy authorities to induce them to participate in the persecution of minority peoples, thereby enabling them to save thousands of refugees. Notable features of their resistance are then compared to the ordinary behavior of some of Milgram's disobedient subjects

Epistemology · Milgram experiment · Nothing · Obedience · Persecution · Political science · Politics · Quality (philosophy · Refugee · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · The Holocaust · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Philosophy · Psychology of Social Influence · Torture, Ethics, and Law