Vices of the Mind by Cassam Quassim

Author:Cassam, Quassim
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: epubor.com

5

Vice and Knowledge

I’ve read a fair amount about the Holocaust. I’m not a historian but I’ve read enough over the years to know that the Holocaust happened. The systematic murder of millions of Jews was undertaken by the Nazis with the aim of exterminating the Jewish population of Europe. If challenged to explain how I know that the Holocaust happened, I can point to various things I have read over the years, and documentaries I have watched. However, although I have read a certain amount about the Holocaust, I haven’t read anything by David Irving. I know that Irving has written extensively about the Third Reich and argues that the Holocaust is a myth.1 Among his claims are that Hitler didn’t order the extermination of the Jews in Europe, that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz, and that not nearly as many Jews were killed by the Nazis as is commonly supposed.2 I know that Irving produces what he regards as evidence in support of these claims but I’ve never felt the need or intellectual obligation to engage with this evidence or with Irving’s work, despite having firm views about the Holocaust that his work disputes. If challenged to rebut a specific piece of documentary evidence produced by Irving I might find it difficult to do so since I lack the relevant expertise. However, I take myself to be justified in ignoring Irving’s arguments and his supposed evidence because I know that the Holocaust happened and can infer from this that any evidence to the contrary must be misleading. Why should I expose myself to evidence that I know to be misleading?

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