Keith Doubt – författare

Understanding Evil seeks to articulate the evil that happened in Bosnia within the context of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Its analysis centers on the question of whether it is possible to understand evil as action. Since the foundations of the social are found in human action, evil's assault on these foundations results in the demise of the social. While evil simulates the outer form of action, ultimately evil belies itself as action. Can someone act with an evil end? Socrates says no, no one willingly does evil. Although, with a mixture of reason and empiricism, the author tries hard to overcome the Socratic position—searching for evil's agency, purpose, means, conditions, and ethos—in the end, the search fails. The author concludes by accepting the Socratic position: action whose end is evil is unthinkable. This tack provides an alternative to recent theorizing about evil by philosophers such as Richard Bernstein and Jeffrey Alexander.The book understands evil via a neologism—as sociocide, the murdering of society. In Bosnia, not only were families destroyed, but their homes as well. Not only were bridges, libraries, schools, mosques, and churches demolished, but towns and cities were obliterated. Bosnian Muslims were murdered behind the mindless rhetoric of "ethnic cleansing," and their history and collective memory were viciously attacked. In the first case, the social violence is called "domicide," in the second, "urbicide," and in the third, "genocide." In Bosnia, however, war took on a truly twisted orientation. Not only were social structures and institutions attacked, but society itself became the target. The book develops the significance of sociocide as the consequence of evil in order to understand the suffering and tragedy of people and communities in Bosnia.

The study compares three Bosnian authors with three European titans: The poet Mak Dizdar to Homer, the novelist Meša Selimović to Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the novelist Ivo Andrić to Leo Tolstoy. The purpose is to move the appreciation of the writing of the most important Bosnian writers of the 20th century closer to the European literary community and to the wholeness of the literary phenomenon. Secondary literature on the Bosnian authors is too narrow, focusing on their ethnic heritages and the Balkan milieu in which they write and missing something essential to a critical appreciation of their works. The study creates not only affinities but, more importantly, amitiés between the authors. The discipline of comparative literature reveals what is missing in the secondary literature, namely, a vision of the literary universe, inclusive and comprehensive.

The study compares three Bosnian authors with three European titans: The poet Mak Dizdar to Homer, the novelist Meša Selimović to Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the novelist Ivo Andrić to Leo Tolstoy. The purpose is to move the appreciation of the writing of the most important Bosnian writers of the 20th century closer to the European literary community and to the wholeness of the literary phenomenon. Secondary literature on the Bosnian authors is too narrow, focusing on their ethnic heritages and the Balkan milieu in which they write and missing something essential to a critical appreciation of their works. The study creates not only affinities but, more importantly, amitiés between the authors. The discipline of comparative literature reveals what is missing in the secondary literature, namely, a vision of the literary universe, inclusive and comprehensive.

This book is a sociological study of recent international conflicts, from Bosnia and Iraq to Ukraine and Gaza. Its approach is theoretical, applying the framework of sociocide to assess the social consequences of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, through comparisons with previous conflicts that meet these criteria.Sociocide means the murdering of the social encompassing matters pertaining to human solidarity: family, social institutions, ethnic, and national identity. This study develops and applies the concept to describe the social and human consequences of the war in Gaza, making comparisons to Chechnya, Iraq, Bosnia, and Ukraine. The conflict in Gaza creates an anomic state of nature where force and fraud are the cardinal virtues. This war demolishes houses as well as the prestige of the home. It kills civilians, that is, children, mothers, and entire families. It destroys communities, their invaluable history and collective memory. It eradicates social systems. The war murders a society. The goal of the comparative study is to frame objectively the moral anomie surrounding the violence of war in Gaza and its impact on world order. It also uses the term sociocide to consider the political war in the United States and the social entrapment of the spirit of capitalism as formulated by Max Weber.This study asks, is there something within society that is resistant to its own demise? Whenever human beings gather, is there an imperishable part of their solidarity? This study takes up these questions concertedly, drawing upon the truisms of important figures in the field of social thought.This book will therefore be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, conflict studies, genocide studies, and any general reader interested in understanding the extent and impact of contemporary conflicts.

This book is a sociological study of recent international conflicts, from Bosnia and Iraq to Ukraine and Gaza. Its approach is theoretical, applying the framework of sociocide to assess the social consequences of the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, through comparisons with previous conflicts that meet these criteria.Sociocide means the murdering of the social encompassing matters pertaining to human solidarity: family, social institutions, ethnic, and national identity. This study develops and applies the concept to describe the social and human consequences of the war in Gaza, making comparisons to Chechnya, Iraq, Bosnia, and Ukraine. The conflict in Gaza creates an anomic state of nature where force and fraud are the cardinal virtues. This war demolishes houses as well as the prestige of the home. It kills civilians, that is, children, mothers, and entire families. It destroys communities, their invaluable history and collective memory. It eradicates social systems. The war murders a society. The goal of the comparative study is to frame objectively the moral anomie surrounding the violence of war in Gaza and its impact on world order. It also uses the term sociocide to consider the political war in the United States and the social entrapment of the spirit of capitalism as formulated by Max Weber.This study asks, is there something within society that is resistant to its own demise? Whenever human beings gather, is there an imperishable part of their solidarity? This study takes up these questions concertedly, drawing upon the truisms of important figures in the field of social thought.This book will therefore be of interest to students and scholars of sociology, conflict studies, genocide studies, and any general reader interested in understanding the extent and impact of contemporary conflicts.

In Ethnic and National Identity in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Keith Doubt and Adnan Tufekcic analyze Bosnian social organization, cultural character, and boundary maintenance. Doubt and Tufekcic argue that modern Bosnians live in a polyethnic society, defined by a set of marriage and kinship practices that cross ethnic and national identity divisions. This book provides readers with a clearer understanding of Bosnian identity and the role of ethnic groups in an increasingly complex society.

Wars have a destructive impact on society. The violence in the first case is domicide, in the second urbicide, in the third genocide, and in the fourth, the book introduces a neologism, sociocide, the killing of society. Through the lens of this neologism, Keith Doubt provides persuasive evidence of the social, political, and human consequences of today’s wars in countries such as Bosnia and Iraq. Sociocide: Reflections on Today’s Wars rigorously formulates, develops, and applies the notion of sociocide as a Weberian ideal type to contemporary wars. Drawing upon sociology, anthropology, philosophy, and literature, Doubt analyzes war crimes, scapegoating, and torture and concludes by examining capitalism in the face of the coronavirus pandemic as a sociocidal force. Embedded in the humanistic tradition and informed by empirical science, this book provides a clear conceptual account of today’s wars, one that is objective and moral, critical and humanistic.

This book is not about war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, evil, or the killing of a society. It is about a cultural heritage, something vital to a society as a society, something that was not killed in the previous war, something that is resilient.Through the Window brings an original perspective to folklore of Bosnians at a certain period of time and the differences and similarities of the three main ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It examines the transethnic character of cultural heritage, against divisions that dominate their tragic recent past.The monograph focuses in particular on customs shared by different ethnic groups, specifically elopement, and affinal visitation. The elopement is a transformative rite of passage where an unmarried girl becomes a married woman. The affinal visitation, which follows, is a confirmatory ceremony where ritualized customs between families establish in-lawships These customs reflect a transethnic heritage shared by people in Bosnia as a national group, including Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats.