It takes the average reader 3 hours and 20 minutes to read The contract of mutual indifference by Norman Geras
Assuming a reading speed of 250 words per minute. Learn more
The idea which I shall present here came to me more or less out of the blue. I was on a train some five years ago, on my way to spend a day at Headingley, and I was reading a book about the death camp Sobibor... The particular, not very appropriate, conjunction involved for me in this train journey...had the effect of fixing my thoughts on one of the more dreadful features of human coexistence, when in the shape of a simple five-word phrase the idea occurred to me.' The contract of mutual indifference In this classic work, newly reissued here with a preface by Oliver Kamm, Norman Geras discusses a central aspect of the experience of the Holocaust with a view to exploring its most important contemporary implications. A bold and powerful synthesis of memorial, literary record, historical reflection and political theory, Geras’s argument focuses on the figure of the bystander – the bystander to the destruction of the Jews of Europe and the bystander to more recent atrocity – to consider the moral consequences of looking on without active responses at persecution and great suffering. This book argues that we owe a duty of help to those who are suffering under terrible oppression. Geras contends that the tragedy of European Jewry – so widely pondered by historians, social scientists, psychologists, theologians and others – has not yet found its proper reflection within political philosophy. Attempting to fill the gap, he adapts an old idea from within that tradition of enquiry, the idea of the social contract, to the task of thinking about the triangular relation between perpetrators, victims and bystanders, and draws a sombre conclusion from it. Geras goes on to ask how far this conclusion may be offset by the hypothesis of a universal duty to bring aid. The contract of mutual indifference is an original and challenging work, aimed at the complacent abstraction of much contemporary theory-building. It is supplemented by three shorter essays on the implications of the Jewish catastrophe for conceptions of human nature and progress.
The contract of mutual indifference by Norman Geras is 196 pages long, and a total of 50,176 words.
This makes it 66% the length of the average book. It also has 61% more words than the average book.
The average oral reading speed is 183 words per minute. This means it takes 4 hours and 34 minutes to read The contract of mutual indifference aloud.
The contract of mutual indifference is suitable for students ages 12 and up.
Note that there may be other factors that effect this rating besides length that are not factored in on this page. This may include things like complex language or sensitive topics not suitable for students of certain ages.
When deciding what to show young students always use your best judgement and consult a professional.
The contract of mutual indifference by Norman Geras is sold by several retailers and bookshops. However, Read Time works with Amazon to provide an easier way to purchase books.
To buy The contract of mutual indifference by Norman Geras on Amazon click the button below.
Buy The contract of mutual indifference on Amazon