Theory of Knowledge - Course Companion for Students Marija Uzunova Dang Arvin Singh Uzunov Dang

concept of “just war” traces back to a
The
idea of ethical war formulated by
1600-year-old
Augustine. This idea reconciled his Christian
St
ideals with what seemed to be necessary
ethical
Augustine’s five basic criteria of just
violence.
are as follows.
war
1. Do we have just cause?
2. Do we have the proper authority to carry
3. Is violence our last resort?
4. Does it have a reasonable chance of success?
Can we conduct war with proportionality, so
5.
the means justify the ends?
that
5, the principle of proportionality, requires
Point
civilian lives on both sides are protected, and
that
proved problematic for political and military
has
How many lost civilian lives are too
leaders.
It is an echo of the cost-benefit analysis
many?
we encounter in Chapters 7 and 8.
problem
idea of justice is often talked about in terms
The
seem opposed to the idea of peace. Justice
that
punishment, reparations and difficult
invokes
whereas peace invokes harmony,
changes,
and compassion. Instead of just war, John
balance
Lederach argues that we should understand
Paul
terms: onbeing Elshtain
Search
Orange Justice and
Lederach
Vietnam War started out withthe
The
of US ethicists and theologians,
endorsement
by 1971 even the US Catholic bishops had
but
their resolve. They declared that the means
lost
fighting the war could no longer justify its
of
Religious morality had run up against
goal.
Orange, a US Marine Corps veteran and
Michael
offers the perspective of a soldier in the
author,
War who came to believe that what he
Vietnam
doing was morally wrong. But he has also
was
“[t]hank God it was a morally ambiguous
said
Morally unambiguous wars “should scare
war”.
the idea of “just war” with Ahimsa,
Compare
translated as compassion or non-
variously
a key virtue in Buddhism, Jainism and
violence,
As a concept, Ahimsa recognizes the
Hinduism.
energy of all living beings and asserts
spiritual
to hurt another is to hurt oneself. Mahatma
that
famously channelled this belief into a
Gandhi
strategy in the Indian independence
political
against the British. It also influenced
movement
thinking and strategies of Martin Luther King
the
James Bevel in the American Civil Rights
and
How sits with the need for
movement.
self-defence is a tension explored in the
violent
Hindu texts
and Ramayana.
classical
IV. Ethics
IV. Ethics
and articulate the notion of a just peace.
IV.4.1 Moral ambiguity in war
just war
consequentialism, and lost.
all of us” (Orange quoted in Tippet 2001).
itout?
IV.4.2 Buddhist monks and military coups
Concepts such as truth, justice, and compassion cannot
be dismissed as trite when these are often the only
bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.
(Aung San Suu Kyi 1995)
165