Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Morality and Political Violence
- 1 Staring at Armageddon
- 2 The Idea of Violence
- 3 Violence and Justice
- 4 Aggression, Defence, and Just Cause
- 5 Justice with Prudence
- 6 The Right Way to Fight
- 7 The Problem of Collateral Damage
- 8 The Morality of Terrorism
- 9 The Immunities of Combatants
- 10 Morality and the Mercenary Warrior
- 11 Objecting Morally
- 12 Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 13 The Ideal of Peace
- 14 The Issue of Stringency
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Justice with Prudence
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Morality and Political Violence
- 1 Staring at Armageddon
- 2 The Idea of Violence
- 3 Violence and Justice
- 4 Aggression, Defence, and Just Cause
- 5 Justice with Prudence
- 6 The Right Way to Fight
- 7 The Problem of Collateral Damage
- 8 The Morality of Terrorism
- 9 The Immunities of Combatants
- 10 Morality and the Mercenary Warrior
- 11 Objecting Morally
- 12 Weapons of Mass Destruction
- 13 The Ideal of Peace
- 14 The Issue of Stringency
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The US has broken the second rule of war. That is, don't go fighting with your land army on the mainland of Asia. Rule One is don't march on Moscow. I developed these two rules myself.
Field Marshal Montgomery, commenting on the American war in Vietnam.The previous two chapters have focussed upon the interpretation of the just cause condition of the JAB. In this chapter, we shall examine those conditions of the JAB that are more concerned with the exercise of prudence in approaching the decision to wage war. This raises issues having to do with the consideration of expectations and consequences and the judgement and balancing of the weight and relevance of such matters. Emphasis on the broadly non-consequentialist nature of the just war tradition can give rise to the thought that this form of thinking cannot be concerned at all with consequences. This is a foolish thought, though it can be encouraged by some of the starker oppositions that philosophers sometimes make between consequentialist theories and those that are contrasted with them. No moral theory and no moral thinking can afford to ignore entirely the assessment of the consequences of action. Where intrinsicalist theories part company from theories like utilitarianism is in their refusal to treat the assessment of consequences as the whole task of moral thinking.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Morality and Political Violence , pp. 88 - 106Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2007