BAUMAN IN GERMANY - MODERN VIOLENCE AND THE PROBLEMS OF GERMAN SELF-UNDERSTANDING

This text of a lecture describes the importance of Zygmunt Bauman's wo rk for sociological theory and intellectual debate in Germany. The mai n points are: (1) the tension between the German Sonderweg thesis and Bauman's analysis of the Holocaust; (2) the relationship between Bauma n's theory of modernity/postmodernity and the writings of Elias. Horkh eimer/Adorno and Beck; (3) a critique of Bauman's neglect of democrati c alternatives within modernity particularly American intellectual and political traditions: and (4) a discussion of Bauman's emphasis on pr e-societal sources of morality in his postmodern ethics and the pragma tist understanding of intersubjectivity and morality.