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Description for Killing in War
Paperback. Jeff McMahan urges us to reject the view, dominant throughout history, that mere participation in an unjust war is not wrong. He argues powerfully that combatants who fight for an unjust cause are acting wrongly and are themselves morally responsible for their actions. We must rethink our attitudes to the moral role of the individual in war. Series: Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics. Num Pages: 272 pages, black & white illustrations. BIC Classification: HPQ; JWA. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 143 x 216 x 16. Weight in Grams: 340.
Killing a person is in general among the most seriously wrongful forms of action, yet most of us accept that it can be permissible to kill people on a large scale in war. Does morality become more permissive in a state of war? Jeff McMahan argues that conditions in war make no difference to what morality permits and the justifications for killing people are the same in war as they are in other contexts, such as individual self-defence. This view is radically at odds with the traditional theory of the just war and has implications that challenge common sense views. McMahan argues, for example, that it is wrong to fight in a war that is unjust because it lacks a just cause.
Product Details
Publisher
Oxford University Press United Kingdom
Number of pages
272
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2011
Series
Uehiro Series in Practical Ethics
Condition
New
Number of Pages
272
Place of Publication
Oxford, United Kingdom
ISBN
9780199603572
SKU
V9780199603572
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days
Ref
99-7
About Jeff McMahan
Jeff McMahan is Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. He works primarily in ethics and political philosophy, and occasionally in metaphysics and legal theory.
Reviews for Killing in War
McMahan's outstanding and readable book Killing in War.. . should help to quiet non-philosophers who dismiss Anglo-American philosophy for being esoteric and aloof, and philosophers who complain that little is happening in moral and political philosophy... He gives comprehensive arguments; he charitably formulates and conscientiously responds to objections. His conclusions might make many readers uncomfortable, but he arrives at them on the basis of moral considerations that otherwise are not particularly controversial... [The book's] rigor, depth, and humanity are estimable.
Lionel K. McPherson, Mind
McMahan makes his arguments with the meticulous logical care of analytical philosophy reminiscent of Derek Parfit's path-breaking work, Reasons and Persons. Killing in War is a provocative contribution to contemporary philosophy and military ethics.
Benjamin Mitchell, The Journal of Politics
This is a good book, well-informed, carefully written and full of insight, scholarship and tough argument. It will certainly stimulate extensive debate amongst philosophers.
Tony Coady, Australian Book Review
Lionel K. McPherson, Mind
McMahan makes his arguments with the meticulous logical care of analytical philosophy reminiscent of Derek Parfit's path-breaking work, Reasons and Persons. Killing in War is a provocative contribution to contemporary philosophy and military ethics.
Benjamin Mitchell, The Journal of Politics
This is a good book, well-informed, carefully written and full of insight, scholarship and tough argument. It will certainly stimulate extensive debate amongst philosophers.
Tony Coady, Australian Book Review