Kant and the End of War: A Critique of Just War Theory by Howard Williams

By Howard Williams

Kant stands nearly unchallenged as one of many significant thinkers of the ecu Enlightenment. This ebook brings the tips of his serious philosophy to endure on one of many top political and criminal questions of our age: below what situations, if any, is recourse to battle legally and morally justifiable? This factor used to be strikingly dropped at the fore through the 2003 struggle in Iraq. The ebook evaluations the culture of simply battle considering and indicates how foreign legislation and diplomacy might be seen from another viewpoint that goals at a extra pacific procedure of states. rather than seeing the idea of simply warfare as offering a stabilizing context during which overseas politics should be performed, Williams argues that the speculation contributes to the present risky overseas . The simply battle culture isn't the silver lining in a more often than not darkish horizon yet particularly an vital characteristic of the darkish horizon of present international politics. Kant used to be one of many first and so much profound thinkers to moot this figuring out of simply battle reasoning and his paintings continues to be an important start line for a severe conception of conflict today.

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The same respect for the rule of law is equally (if not even more) evident in Kant’s practical philosophy, where the cornerstone of his moral thinking is the idea of a categorical imperative which requires us to ‘act only in accordance with that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it become a universal law’ (4: 421; 73). From this idea Kant derives the related notion that we should never treat others solely as means but always also as ends. As is only to be expected, community and harmony are at the heart of Kant’s notion of morality, which is summed up by the idea of a ‘kingdom’ or dominion of ends which is ‘a systematic union of various rational beings through common laws’ (4: 433; 83).

3. By the same means (war) she has forced them into more or less lawful relations with each other (8: 363/441). As a moral philosopher Kant is utterly opposed to war, yet he sees that it can bring improvement in its terrible wake. War is always wrong ‘as it produces more evil men than it takes away’ (8: 365/443). But war has far greater effects than those who first prosecute it imagine. According to Kant, it is war that first drove people to inhabit the less hospitable parts of the globe. The human race would by far prefer to live in warm or temperate climates where the fruits of nature grow most abundantly and the labour of cultivation is least demanding.

Sublimity is attached to this capacity to be independent of the power of nature, becoming ‘conscious of being superior to nature within us and thus also to nature outside us (insofar as it influences us)’ (5: 264/147). Kant suggests that this awareness of the sublime in relation to war can be seen in the most primitive of societies. ‘For what is it that is an object of the greatest even to the savage? ’ The protagonist in war sets himself above nature putting a higher value on honour and bravery than life itself.

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Kant and the End of War: A Critique of Just War Theory by Howard Williams
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