Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T09:28:38.781Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Larry May
Affiliation:
Professor of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis; Research Professor of Social Justice, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt and Australian National Universities
Larry May
Affiliation:
Washington University, St Louis
Get access

Summary

Philosophers have written about war for as long as there have been philosophers. Indeed, the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus (c. 502 b.c.), from whom we have only a few scattered words remaining, talks about war and uses war as his main analogy to understand all other relations. Since ancient Greek times, nearly every major philosopher has had something to say about war, and many have written special treatises on the topic. There are several obvious, and several not so obvious, reasons why philosophers have been intrigued by war. Most obviously, many lived during times of war and war tends to color every part of one's experience. War is also the kind of experience that calls out for attempted justification, given the sheer amount of horror that often accompanies it. And war also offers considerable puzzles to be solved, such as why the killing of soldiers in war could be condoned but seemingly lesser offenses such as mistreating soldiers who have been captured would be so strongly condemned.

Perhaps more subtly, war has intrigued philosophers because the morality of war is thought to be special and somehow different from the morality of normal life. And this has also caused a reexamination of whether it is indeed true that death is the worst of harms that can befall an individual person. The issue of war has also inspired philosophers to think about collective action (and the metaphysics of groups) in ways quite different from individual action.

Type
Chapter
Information
War
Essays in Political Philosophy
, pp. 1 - 8
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
    • By Larry May, Professor of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis; Research Professor of Social Justice, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt and Australian National Universities
  • Edited by Larry May, Washington University, St Louis
  • Assisted by Emily Crookston
  • Book: War
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840982.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
    • By Larry May, Professor of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis; Research Professor of Social Justice, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt and Australian National Universities
  • Edited by Larry May, Washington University, St Louis
  • Assisted by Emily Crookston
  • Book: War
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840982.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
    • By Larry May, Professor of Philosophy, Washington University in St. Louis; Research Professor of Social Justice, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Charles Sturt and Australian National Universities
  • Edited by Larry May, Washington University, St Louis
  • Assisted by Emily Crookston
  • Book: War
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511840982.001
Available formats
×