Search results
On the contrary, there is abundant evidence that war is a comparatively recent cultural addition to the human repertoire, acquired within the last 10,000 years or so as a result of several factors, including the invention of agriculture – resulting in the accumulation of valuable material resources that lend themselves to being stolen as well as defended, along with enabling the construction ...
- Interpersonal Peace & Refusing Abuse
Interpersonal peace is very much like social peace: it is...
- Peace, Love, & Happiness
War & Peace Peace, Love, & Happiness Andrew Fiala asks if...
- Ecological Ethics
Sustainability Ecological Ethics Tim Madigan asks, what is...
- Tags
This site uses cookies to recognize users and allow us to...
- Simon & Finn
This site uses cookies to recognize users and allow us to...
- Is War Inevitable
In his reply to Einstein Freud says that what makes human...
- Interpersonal Peace & Refusing Abuse
- Quotes
- Significance
- Philosophy
- Definitions
- Example
- Analysis
- Causes
- Evolution
- Introduction
- Influences
- Criticisms
- Scope
- Setting
- Issues
- Other uses
Any philosophical examination of war will center on four general questions: What is war? What causes war? What is the relationship between human nature and war? Can war ever be morally justifiable?
Finally, the question remains as to whether war is ever morally justified. Just war theory is a useful structure within which the discourse of war may be ethically examined. In the evolving context of modern warfare, a moral calculus of war will require the philosopher of war to account not only for military personnel and civilians, but also for ju...
The answers to all these questions lead on to more specific and applied ethical and political questions. Overall, the philosophy of war is complex and requires one to articulate consistent thought across the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, political philosophy, and ethics. The morality of war traipses into the related area ...
Cicero defines war broadly as \"a contention by force\"; Hugo Grotius adds that \"war is the state of contending parties, considered as such\"; Thomas Hobbes notes that war is also an attitude: \"By war is meant a state of affairs, which may exist even while its operations are not continued;\" Denis Diderot comments that war is \"a convulsive and v...
For example, the notion that wars only involve states-as Clausewitz implies-belies a strong political theory that assumes politics can only involve states and that war is in some manner or form a reflection of political activity. 'War' defined by Webster's Dictionary is a state of open and declared, hostile armed conflict between states or nations,...
The military historian, John Keegan offers a useful characterization of the political-rationalist theory of war in his A History of War. It is assumed to be an orderly affair in which states are involved, in which there are declared beginnings and expected ends, easily identifiable combatants, and high levels of obedience by subordinates. The form ...
Those who thus emphasize war as a product of man's choices bring to the fore his political and ethical nature, but once the broad philosophical territory of metaphysics has been addressed other particular causes of war can be noted. These may be divided into three main groupings: those who seek war's causation in man's biology, those that seek it i...
Some claim war to be a product of man's inherited biology, with disagreements raging on the ensuing determinist implications. Example theories include those that claim man to be naturally aggressive or naturally territorial, more complex analyses incorporate game theory and genetic evolution to explain the occurrence of violence and war (cf. Richar...
Rejecting biological determinism, culturalists seek to explain war's causation in terms of particular cultural institutions. Again determinism is implied when proponents claim that war is solely a product of man's culture or society, with different opinions arising as to the nature or possibility of cultural change. For example, can the 'soft moral...
Many who explain war's origins in man's abandonment of reason also derive their thoughts from Plato, who argues that \"wars and revolutions and battles are due simply and solely to the body and its desires.\" That is, man's appetite sometimes or perpetually overwhelms his reasoning capacity, which results in moral and political degeneration. Echoes...
The problem with focusing on one single aspect of man's nature is that while the explanation of war's causation may be simplified, the simplification ignores cogent explanations put forward by competing theories. For example, an emphasis on man's reason as the cause of war is apt to ignore deep cultural structures that may perpetuate war in the fac...
The examination of war's causation triggers the need for elaboration on many sub-topics, regardless of the internal logical validity of a proposed explanation. Students of war thus need to explore beyond proffered definitions and explanations to consider the broader philosophical problems that they often conceal.
A setting to explore the relationship between human nature and war is provided by Thomas Hobbes, who presents a state of nature in which the 'true' or 'underlying' nature of man is likely to come to the fore of our attention. Hobbes is adamant that without an external power to impose laws, the state of nature would be one of immanent warfare. That ...
However, once the student has considered, or is at least aware of the broader philosophical theories that may relate to war, an analysis of its ethics begins with the question: is war morally justifiable? Again, due notice must be given to conceptions of justice and morality that involve both individuals and groups. War as a collective endeavor eng...
Beyond what has been called the pacificistic morality (in which peace is the end goal as distinct from pacifism and its rejection of war as a means), are those theories that establish an ethical value in war. Few consider war should be fought for war's sake, but many writers have supported war as a means to various ends other than peace. For exampl...
Mar 5, 2007 · The first argumentclaims that liberalism is unprepared to fight wars, while thesecond suggests that liberalism unravels in wartime. Either way, itseems, if war looms, liberalism loses. It is not ...
Jan 10, 2015 · It must have a reasonable chance of success. It must be declared and waged by a competent governing authority. And it must be undertaken as a last resort. If the war meets these six criteria, it ...
In his reply to Einstein Freud says that what makes human beings so responsive to the drums of war is a natural passion for destruction, a primal urge to reduce life to inert matter. And when this death instinct can ally itself with the creative drive through a great purpose, as when war is unleashed for the purity of the Aryan race, or for the ...
Oct 1, 2019 · Hobbes’s 17th century philosophical argument that war is inevitable, which forms the core component of Classical Realism, is still widely in use, despite the fact that Neo-Realism no longer uses Hobbesian reasoning. Hobbes’s argument fundamentally depends on his proof of human self-interest. However, an analysis of the construction of ...
Jun 20, 2016 · We should understand that Kant did not favor a world- state. He rejected this idea because differences in language, culture, traditions, and so forth rendered a world- state thoroughly impracticable. Nevertheless, a league of nations—or a “league of peace,” as Kant described it—should be charged with maintaining perpetual peace.
