Realism & Pacifism Two ends of the Just War Theory Spectrum Readings for this Week Realism Part One- The Moral Reality of War Chapter 1- Against “Realism” Pages- 3-20 William James The Moral Equivalent of War The JWT Spectrum Think of the various positions as a spectrum and not binary. Pacifists Realists Idealists The Realist Position “Inter arma silent leges” (3) In times of war the law is silent The position is essentially that war is such a morally different activity than anything else that there is no possible way that we can have anything morally to say about it. “men and women do what they must to save themselves and their communities, morality and law have no place” (3). “we can neither praise nor blame, there is nothing to say” (3). If war is so fundamentally unique, how is it that it has happened throughout human history? Is war a fundamental part of our nature? The Realist Argument The awful things we do in war is not “inhumanity” but rather “humanity under pressure” (4). We cannot and we ought not try to limit the behaviors of soldiers in war. Historical Example The Melian Dialogue History of the Peloponnesian War “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must” The Idealist Position War is not a fundamentally unique activity and we can pass judgment upon the actions of those involved. “nevertheless we believe that, for fortune, we shall be nothing inferior, as having the gods on our side, because we stand innocent against the unjust” (6). We should not give in to our base desires as the realist believes, we are capable of restraining ourselves in even the times of great calamity Strategy and Morality “Strategy, like morality, is a language of justification” (13). “we can make moral judgments: moral concepts and strategic concepts reflect the real world in the same way” (14). “The moral theorist is in the same position (as the strategist). He too must come to grips with the fact that his rules are often violated or ignored—and with the deeper realization that, to men at war, the rules often doesn’t seem relevant to the extremity of their situation” (14). Strategy and Morality “Reiterated over time, our arguments and judgments shape what I want to call the moral reality of war—that is, all those experiences of which moral language is descriptive or within which it is necessarily employed” (15). “It is important to stress that the moral reality of war is not fixed by the actual activities of soldiers but by the opinions of mankind” (15). “Once again, the case is the same with moral decisions: soldiers and statesmen ought to know the dangers of cruelty and injustice and worry about them and take steps to avoid them” (15-16). Historical Relativism There is a claim that moral and strategic knowledge changes over time and with different communities (16). “Even when world views and high ideals have been abandoned– as the glorification of aristocratic chivalry was abandoned in early modern times– notions about right conduct are remarkably persistent: the military code survives the death of warrior idealism” (16). “The clearest evidence for the stability of our values over time is the unchanging character of the lies soldiers and statesmen tell” (19). The Pacifist Position Much like positions in JWT are scalar, pacifism is also scalar. Some might claim that every instance of violence is immoral and are likely the most extreme. A moderate version claims that only justified violence is morally acceptable. The Moral Equivalent of War- William James William James did not reject all violence (just most of it). “In modern eyes, precious though wars may be they must not be waged solely for the sake of the ideal harvest. Only when forced upon one, is a war now thought permissible” (1). Martial virtues arise from warfare Pugnacity often favored “… but modern man inherits all the innate pugnacity and all the love of glory of his ancestors” (1). The Moral Equivalent of War- William James “War is the strong life; it is life in extremis; war taxes are the only ones men never hesitate to pay, as the budgets of all nations show us” (1). Think back to Aristotle- vices in the extreme (excess) How does this conflict with Aristotle’s “Golden Mean?” Ancient wars (according to James), “were purely piratical” (2). Wars of Aggression. The Moral Equivalent of War- William James This innate pugnacity and aggression is not all our fault though, “We inherit the warlike type; and for most of the capacities of heroism that the human race is full of we have to thank this cruel history” (3). “Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow, and thousands of years of peace won’t breed it out of us” (3). If pugnacity and meanness are a fundamental part of our nature how can we ever eliminate it? Should we give up and not work against it? “The military instincts and ideals are as strong as ever, but they are confronted by reflective criticisms which sorely curb their ancient freedom” (3). The Moral Equivalent of War- William James What should the pacifist (the peace party) aim for? “I see how desperately hard it is to bring the peaceparty and the war-party together, and I believe that the difficulty is due to certain deficiencies in the program of pacifism which set the military imagination strongly, and to a certain extent justifiably, against it” (3) The Moral Equivalent of War- William James What is the main problem? Society views, “Militarism is the great preserver of our ideals of hardihood, and human life with no use for hardihood would be contemptible” (4). “War is, in short, a permanent human obligation” (4). The fear of the war party, is that if we lose war we lose: The aesthetic value- it’s elements of “charm” and “splendidness” The moral value- as a forum to prove hardiness, honor, and other martial values The Moral Equivalent of War- William James A successful peace activist must provide an analagous option to the moral values of war A Moral Equivalent of War It must provide a hardness and strenuousness where men can prove themselves worthy. “Martial virtues must be the enduring cement; intrepidity, contempt of softness, surrender of private interest, obedience to command, must still remain the rock upon which states are built– unless, indeed, we which for dangerous reactions against commonwealths, fit only for contempt, and liable to invite attack whenever a centre of crystallization for military minded enterprise gets forms anywhere in their neighborhood” (7-8). The Moral Equivalent of War- William James” If now– and this is my idea– there were, instead of military conscription, a conscription of the whole youthful population to form for a certain number of years a part of the army enlisted against Nature, the injustice would tend to be evened out, and numerous other goods to the commonwealth would remain blind to the luxurious classes now are blind, to the man’s relation to the globe he lives on, and to the permanently sour and hard foundations of his higher life” (8) This was a direct influence on the creation, in the Great Depression, of organizations like the Civilian Conservation Corps, the Peace Corps, the Tennessee Valley Authority, etc.
