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Justification or Excuse: Saving Soldiers at the Expense of Civilians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Paul Woodruff
Paul Woodruff*
Affiliation:
University of Texas at Austin
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Extract

When soldiers find it morally comfortable to kill civilians and the public accepts such actions easily, philosophers are inclined to ask whether their comfort and acceptance rests on a misunderstanding. If it does, then philosophy could save lives by clearing up the problem. But most recent discussion has been about the wrong issue — whether killing non-combatants is wrong, and if so, why. That is all beside the point. Soldiers who kill civilians, in my experience, believe already that it is a bad thing to do. That they consider their actions at least prima facie wrong is evident from their readiness with excuses and justifications. Indeed, many of them take care to silence their consciences in advance with arguments of self-exoneration for the wrongs they are about to commit. We may reasonably hope that these soldiers would find it harder to kill civilians without those arguments to relieve their anticipated guilt.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy Supplementary Volume , Volume 8: New Essays in Ethics and Public Policy , 1982 , pp. 159 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 1982

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References

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