Morality and political violence / C.A.J. Coady.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Coady, C. A. J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Violence--Moral and ethical aspects.

Violence.

Physical Description:

xi, 317 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2008.

Summary:

Political violence in the form of wars, insurgencies, terrorism, and violent rebellion constitutes a major human challenge today as it has so often in the past. It is a challenge not only to life and limb, but also to morality itself. In this book, C. A. J. Coady brings a philosophical and ethical perspective to the subject. He places the problems of war and political violence in the frame of reflective ethics. In clear and accessible language, Coady reexamines a range of urgent problems pertinent to political violence against the background of a contemporary approach to just war thinking. The problems examined include the right to make war, the right way to conduct war, terrorism, revolution, humanitarianism, mercenary warriors, conscientious objection, combatant and noncombatant status, the ideal of peace and the right way to end war, pacifism, weapons of mass destruction, and supreme emergency exemptions from just war prohibition. Coady attempts to vindicate the relevance of the just war tradition to contemporary problems without applying the tradition in a merely mechanical or uncritical fashion.

Contents:

Staring at Armageddon

The idea of violence

Violence and justice

Aggression, defence, and just cause

Justice with prudence

The right way to fight

The problem of collateral damage

The morality of terrorism

The immunities of combatants

Morality and the mercenary warrior

Objecting morally

Weapons of mass destruction

The ideal of peace

The issue of stringency.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 301-312) and index.

ISBN:

9780521560009

0521560004

9780521705486

0521705487

OCLC:

80359184

Online:

Publisher description

Contributor biographical information