Final Report Summary - NS-MORALITY (Distortions of Normativity: The NS-System and Morality)
The scientific aim of the ERC-project "Distortions of Normativity" (acronym: NS-Morality) was to investigate the normative foundations of distorted legal and political orders. One special focus was a philosophical analysis of the normative transformations in the National Socialist legal system in the period 1933-1939. In addition, the ERC-project explored philosophical questions about normativity, rationality, practical reasoning and intentional action under non-ideal political and moral conditions.
The ERC-project offers new insights on the normative structures of authoritarian and totalitarian political regimes. The research on the theoretical foundations of the National Socialist legal system is novel and innovative. According to post-war legal philosophy, legal positivism and its separation of law and morality were responsible for the deterioration of legal standards under the Nazi regime. An analysis of the original texts of National Socialist legal theorists shows, however, that they all rejected legal positivism and endorsed a unification of law and morality. Blurring the distinction between law and morality extended the authority of the National Socialist regime. When legal obligations amount to ethical obligations the Kantian distinction between inner and outer freedom breaks down. This has far-reaching consequences. The state has now not only the authority to demand citizen’s compliance with its laws, but requires citizens to comply with legal norms for ethical reasons. The state thus has the authority to control personal ethical attitudes and values. This shows that the separation between law and morality, as defended by legal positivism, is important to prevent a totalitarian political system from using an ideological interpretation of “morality” as a tool for exerting extensive authority.
Since the ideological moralization of law is so crucial for understanding the distortions in National Socialist legal theory, the project explored in detail how the deterioration of legal systems can be prevented by morally minimal normative requirements like publicity, predictability, transparency, non-arbitrariness. Instead of arguing that morality should be part of law, morality must remain as a normatively distinct external standard for assessing the legitimacy of legal systems.
The research resulted in publications that already had a remarkable impact. To mention just three publications by members of the ERC-project on the topic of National Socialist legal theory: first, the symposium “New Perspectives on Nazi Law” in the journal “Jurisprudence”, edited by Carolyn Benson and Julian Fink that contains several articles by team members of the ERC-project NS-Morality; second, the volume “Rechtfertigungen des Unrechts”. Das Rechtsdenken im Nationalsozialismus in Originaltexten” (Suhrkamp 2014), edited by Herlinde Pauer-Studer and Julian Fink with a 135-page long introduction to the topic; third, the book by Herlinde Pauer-Studer and J. David Velleman, “Konrad Morgen: The Conscience of a Nazi Judge” (Palgrave Macmillan 2015).
The book “Konrad Morgen: The Conscience of a Nazi Judge” (co-authored by Herlinde Pauer-Studer, J. David Velleman) introduces a kind of new category of work into analytic moral philosophy, the category of “moral biography”. The book is a detailed case study (documented with extensive archive material) of a particular person’s distorted moral thinking under extremely immoral conditions. Such a work has so far not been undertaken by analytic moral philosophy.
The ERC-project offers new insights on the normative structures of authoritarian and totalitarian political regimes. The research on the theoretical foundations of the National Socialist legal system is novel and innovative. According to post-war legal philosophy, legal positivism and its separation of law and morality were responsible for the deterioration of legal standards under the Nazi regime. An analysis of the original texts of National Socialist legal theorists shows, however, that they all rejected legal positivism and endorsed a unification of law and morality. Blurring the distinction between law and morality extended the authority of the National Socialist regime. When legal obligations amount to ethical obligations the Kantian distinction between inner and outer freedom breaks down. This has far-reaching consequences. The state has now not only the authority to demand citizen’s compliance with its laws, but requires citizens to comply with legal norms for ethical reasons. The state thus has the authority to control personal ethical attitudes and values. This shows that the separation between law and morality, as defended by legal positivism, is important to prevent a totalitarian political system from using an ideological interpretation of “morality” as a tool for exerting extensive authority.
Since the ideological moralization of law is so crucial for understanding the distortions in National Socialist legal theory, the project explored in detail how the deterioration of legal systems can be prevented by morally minimal normative requirements like publicity, predictability, transparency, non-arbitrariness. Instead of arguing that morality should be part of law, morality must remain as a normatively distinct external standard for assessing the legitimacy of legal systems.
The research resulted in publications that already had a remarkable impact. To mention just three publications by members of the ERC-project on the topic of National Socialist legal theory: first, the symposium “New Perspectives on Nazi Law” in the journal “Jurisprudence”, edited by Carolyn Benson and Julian Fink that contains several articles by team members of the ERC-project NS-Morality; second, the volume “Rechtfertigungen des Unrechts”. Das Rechtsdenken im Nationalsozialismus in Originaltexten” (Suhrkamp 2014), edited by Herlinde Pauer-Studer and Julian Fink with a 135-page long introduction to the topic; third, the book by Herlinde Pauer-Studer and J. David Velleman, “Konrad Morgen: The Conscience of a Nazi Judge” (Palgrave Macmillan 2015).
The book “Konrad Morgen: The Conscience of a Nazi Judge” (co-authored by Herlinde Pauer-Studer, J. David Velleman) introduces a kind of new category of work into analytic moral philosophy, the category of “moral biography”. The book is a detailed case study (documented with extensive archive material) of a particular person’s distorted moral thinking under extremely immoral conditions. Such a work has so far not been undertaken by analytic moral philosophy.