Unconscionable Crimes

Paul Morrow, a philosopher who is currently a Human Rights Fellow at the University of Dayton, has written a much-needed study of the relationships between moral, legal, and social norms and the all-too-human, in this case genocide and other mass atrocities. His book is an extended argument against the claim that he attributes to various historians, philosophers, and social scientists that such atrocities are committed either out of a suspension of norms altogether, or an “inverted norm inversion” in which what was right before is now replaced with a murderous set of commitments and attitudes. The main argument of his book is that “mass atrocities typically reflect the presence, not the absence of norms” (p. 98) and that, with some exceptions, such as doctors during the Holocaust, the “inversion” theory can be better explained by erosion and evasion of norms due to conditions that he outlines. He then argues that

Argument (complex analysis · Genocide · Human rights · Law and economics · Norm (philosophy · Political science · Sociology · The Holocaust · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · Torture, Ethics, and Law · War, Ethics, and Justification · Law