Just war principles originate in the conflict between christian morality and the temporal powers of the Catholic Church. Since that conflict was irreconciliable, there never was a way to use just war principles to limit Catholic wars. Its nice to hear there's a consensus about what just war principles are now but, as this discussion shows, its entirely abstract. In reality, Ukraine fights to live.
The arguments and opinions that your guest presents seem philosophically sound. But if his home, city, or country were under attack by an adversary who did not respect his rules of war, I wonder how quickly his thoughts would change. It is too easy for people outside of this war to make moral and philosophical pronouncements. In this type of war against such a clearly evil adversary, the maxim of an eye for an eye seems extremely apt.
Thank you both, very interesting!
Thank you, Volodymyr Yermolenko and Jeff McMahan, for this very interesting conversation.
🇺🇦 Перемоги та миру всім українцям! 🇺🇦
Just war principles originate in the conflict between christian morality and the temporal powers of the Catholic Church. Since that conflict was irreconciliable, there never was a way to use just war principles to limit Catholic wars. Its nice to hear there's a consensus about what just war principles are now but, as this discussion shows, its entirely abstract. In reality, Ukraine fights to live.
The arguments and opinions that your guest presents seem philosophically sound. But if his home, city, or country were under attack by an adversary who did not respect his rules of war, I wonder how quickly his thoughts would change. It is too easy for people outside of this war to make moral and philosophical pronouncements. In this type of war against such a clearly evil adversary, the maxim of an eye for an eye seems extremely apt.