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Thomas Aquinas on the morality of war
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The Concept of Just War In the 13th century, Thomas Aquinas, a Christian Monk, drew up some conditions for Just War, basing his ideas on Augustine’s beliefs. the 4th century. Aquinas laid down three conditions that have to be met for a war to be considered ‘just’; the war must be started. controlled by the authority of the state or ruler (e.g. president), and the president is a sham. there must be a just cause; those attacked must deserve it, and the war must be fought to promote good or avoid evil, which was the motive. behind the ongoing Iraq ‘war’; peace and justice must be restored. afterwards. I will be able to do that. Furthermore, other Christians have since added three more. conditions; the war must be the last resort; all other possible ways.
2) The cause must be just. This is jus ad bellum because you decide if
This takes us to the concept of just war. Aristotle saw just war as a means to a higher goal. You don't just fight the war to win the war there needs to be a purpose to fighting the war. He goes on to tell us how others view just war. The Romans said war was just only when conducted by the state, and only accompanied by a declaration of hostilities, meaning war had to be declared on someone. Rebellions and revolutions were not considered just wars. The Japanese did not define when war was just or proper. Early Christians rejected war; this came from the effort to be more Christ like, the Golden Rule, due unto others as you would have them do to you. Later the Christians could no longer be pacifists; they were going to have to go to war sometime after Constantine became emperor and declared Christianity as the main religion of the time.
The idea of war and how it can be justified, is a rather trick topic to touch on, as there are diverse ethical and sociological implications that have to be weighed on every step. Mainly we could look at the “Just War Theory” and see how that could possibly apply to the real world. To be able to enter a “Just War” nations must meet six criteria in Jus ad Bellum (Going to War). The criteria is as follows: “Just Cause”, “Right Intention”, “Proper Authority and Public Declaration”, “Last Resort”, “Probability of Success”, and lastly “Proportionality”. However the tricky bit of the Just War theory, is that all six of those elements must be met, to go to war in a morally justifiable way. This could make an easy blockade for nations to veto another nation's effort to enter a war, even if morally justifiable. The problem with an internationally mandated “war-committee”, means that the fate of another nation's well-being could very well be in the hands of a nation with an ulterior motive. It could also fall into the grounds of new found illegal activity. Lets give a hypothetical situation, say nation 'X' wants to go to war with nation 'Y' in an act of self-defence, but it doesn't meet some of the requirements for “Just War theory” and is thus blocked by the war-committee. Then as a consequence, nation 'X' is invaded and annexed due to lack of defence. Nation 'X' could have made an effort to prepare for war, but at the cost of possibly being condemned and sanctioned by the war-committee. In an overall view, it's easy to see why the UN or other major international coalitions will not adopt a system based around Just War Theory.
McDonald. “Just War Theory.” Humanities. Boston University. College of General Studies, Boston. 24 February 2014. Lecture.
Among some of the largest conflicts in the world stand the Crusades; a brutal conflict that lasted over 200 years and was debatably one of the largest armed religious conflicts in the history of humankind. Since this is so clearly an event of importance, historians have searched vigorously for the true answer as to why the crusades began. Ultimately, because of accusatory views on both the sides of the Christians and of the Muslims, the two groups grew in such hatred of each other that they began to act in deep discrimination of each other. Moreover, Christian motives seemed to be driven mostly by the capture of Jerusalem, the dark ages of Europe and the common-folks desperation for land, wealth, and a spot in heaven. What seems to be continually
The just war theory allows for war to be declared in response to a case of substantial aggression; however, this is a vague term. To establi...
Even though many credit St. Augustine with founding the just war theory, this view is partially misleading. Augustine synthesized ideas from classical Greco-Roman and Christian philosophy to construct his theory, so credit can also be given to philosophers like Aristotle and Cicero. Since then, it has been modified by many notable thinkers such as St. Thomas Aquinas, Hugo Grotius, and Francisco Suarez (Orend). Technicalities aside, Augustine was a pivotal figure in developing our contemporary understanding of this tradition (Massaro 70).
The limits that a ‘just’ war places on the use of aggression between states for both states
All of Sun Tzu’s strategies in The Art of War have been adopted by American businesses in order for them to be successful. Chapter one of The Art of War is “Laying Plans” which has five fundamental factors: the moral law, heaven, earth, the commander, and method and discipline. In business the moral law means one’s mission or goal. Heaven compares to outside forces such as the market and dependencies. Earth would be the scene of action such as people, place, product, and process included in production. Commander is leadership like a sponsor or a bachelor of arts. Method and discipline are the guiding principles similar to business ethics, laws, and policies. Sun Tzu said, “These five heads should be familiar to every general; he who knows them will be victorious; he who knows them not will fail” (Tzu 2). Basically, what this means and how businesses relate to it is that before one does anything one evaluates all business options.
More than two thousand years ago, a Chinese strategist known as Sun Tzu wrote one of the enduring classics of military theory. Most likely written during a period of Chinese history referred to as the ‘Warring States’ period, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War has continued to be studied by military strategists for millennia. Even today, The Art of War is required reading for Naval Officer Candidates. At nearly the same time in the fourth century B.C., the Greek city-states were facing invasion from the mighty Persian army. Vastly outnumbered, the Greeks eventually triumphed by defeating their enemies at Plataea, but not before fighting one of history’s greatest military stands at Thermopylae. By using Sun Tzu’s classic text to analyze the battles of Thermopylae and Plataea, it is possible to gain a better understanding not only of the battles themselves, but also of the reasons why The Art of War has remained such an influential and respected text over the centuries.
War is the epitome of cruelty and violence, an experience that can prove maddening and strip away some of the most intrinsic characteristics of humanity. Kurt Vonnegut’s experiences as a prisoner of war during World War II inspired his critically hailed novel Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), in which characters continually search for meaning in the aftermath of mankind’s irrational cruelty ("Kurt Vonnegut: 1922-2007" 287). Both the main character, Billy Pilgrim, and Vonnegut have been in Dresden for the firebombing, and that is what motivates their narrative (Klinkowitz 335). In his anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut expresses the adverse emotional effects of war through the psyche of Billy Pilgrim.
Current military leadership should comprehend the nature of war in which they are engaged within a given political frame in order to develop plans that are coherent with the desired political end state. According to Clausewitz, war is an act of politics that forces an enemy to comply with certain conditions or to destroy him through the use of violence. A nation determines its vital interests, which drives national strategy to obtain or protect those interests. A country achieves those goals though the execution of one of the four elements of power, which are diplomatic, informational, military and economical means. The use of military force...
Wisdom is a hard concept to grasp especially, in today’s society because of the complex issues we are faced with now. Things ranging from war to something like same sex marriages. The way society has shaped up to be makes it harder to determine what’s exactly right or wrong. An example of that the confusion we are being faced with is whether or not we should go to war to me or you regular citizens war might not be the best thing for us because all we see is the losses we will be handed. To the government our losses are not important what is important to them power. They want to keep other nations scared of the United States. So we are left with the question of would it be wise to engage in a war? The answer would vary depending on the person you are asking the question to. Through our discussion in class of knowledge, skills and wisdom we came to the conclusion of “knowledge is knowing what”, “skills is knowing how” and “wisdom is knowing what and how plus knowing when.” I agree fully with that explanation. The key to wisdom is having skills and knowledge but knowing how to use them. Socrates I think believes that but he feels that wisdom also includes the journey. Meaning a key to wisdom is seeking answers and not being satisfied with something that is said to be right but, does not make any sense to you. I also find that to be true.
The theory of Just War can be found back over centuries to the philosophy of St. Augustine and beyond. Augustine was one of the first important figures to be challenged by the concerns raised by justified warfare. Christianity, despite significant prosecution, grew out of the Roman Empire, which was Pagan. The evolving Christianity was fundamentally pacifist, giving rise to the refusal of Christians to fight in the Roman army; violence was against Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek, never seek revenge, not to defend themselves and to forgive seventy times seven. Similarly, they could not justify fighting for a pagan empire, and since initially, they were expecting Jesus to return soon, warfare was not considered an important priority. However, when Emperor Constantine became Christian, he made Christianity the official religion of the empire. Up until this point, Christianity remained pacifist. This was the problem that Augustine was faced with; justifying warfare for a Christian empire.
World War II caused the most casualties, involved more nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. World War II remains one of the enigmatic events in United States history. The undeniable consequences of war results in countries roles to change, caused unnecessary racism throughout the country, and caused global fear.