Sparing Civilians
Seth Lazar - Oxford University Press, 2015
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| Anteprima |
Killing
civilians is worse than killing soldiers. If any moral principle
commands near universal assent, this one does. It is written into every
major historical and religious tradition that has addressed armed
conflict. It is uncompromisingly inscribed in international law. It
underpins and informs public discussion of conflict-we always ask first
how many civilians died? And it guides political practice, at least in
liberal democracies, both in how we fight our wars and in which wars we
fight. Few moral principles have been more widely and more viscerally
affirmed than this one. And yet, in recent years it has faced a rising
tide of dissent. Political and military leaders seeking to slip the
constraints of the laws of war have cavilled and qualified. Their
complaints have been unwittingly aided by philosophers who, rebuilding
just war theory from its foundations, have concluded that this principle
is at best a useful fiction. Sparing Civilians aims to turn this tide,
and to vindicate international law, and the ruptured consensus. In doing
so, Seth Lazar develops new insights into the morality of harm,
relevant to everyone interested in normative ethics and political
philosophy.
