Cover -- Contents -- Front Matter -- Title Page -- Publisher Information -- Preface -- The Philosophy of War and Peace -- Part I -- The Causes and Aims of War -- Causes and aims -- Aims in history -- Clausewitz on war -- Lenin on war -- Speculation: George Orwell and Aldous Huxley -- Speculation: Sigmund Freud -- Rules of War in the Ancient World -- Customary law and the laws of war -- Israel and Greece -- Plato and Aristotle -- Rome -- The Just War I -- The thoughts of Saint Augustine -- War and the religious orders -- Developing the idea of a just war -- The conditions needed for a war to be just -- War and punishment -- Aggression, defence, uncertainty -- The Just War II -- Elizabeth Anscombe's papers on war -- The meaning of innocence -- Anthony Kenny and others on war and deterrence -- Vatican II and pacem in terris -- Some difficulties -- The Laws of War and the Red Cross -- International law and the law of war -- The Red Cross -- International declarations -- The resort to war and the methods of war -- Savagery -- The Nuremberg judgement -- The Red Cross fundamental rules -- Part II -- All-out Aerial Warfare -- Hitler's Blitzkrieg and 'Gott straf England!' -- 'Bomber' Harris -- Bishop George Bell -- Hiroshima, Nagasaki -- All-out War and the Ordinary Soldier -- Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan -- American soldiers in South-East Asia and Iraq -- War and Science -- Scientists and war -- Aeroplanes -- Chemical warfare -- A scientific experiment -- Engineers and physicists -- Physicians and psychiatrists -- Science and politics -- Science and truth -- Deterrent Threats in the Cold War -- The Cold War and deterrent threats -- The uselessness of nuclear weapons: George F. Kennan -- The ethics of deterrence: John Finnis and colleagues -- Stalin not immortal -- On choosing between evils -- Part III -- Terrorism -- Politics and terrorism.

Types of terror -- On definitions -- How to define the word terrorism -- A multi-faceted definition -- Torture -- Torture and the Inquisition -- Dershowitz on torture -- Official and unofficial torture -- Reasons, good and bad, against advocating torture -- Dershowitz and Bentham -- Some opinions of scholars, clergy, physicians -- Explaining torture and torturers -- Hostages and Ransoms -- Hostages in Entebbe, 1976 -- Hostages in Iran, 1979-1981 -- Hostages in London, 1980 -- Hostages in the Lebanon in the 1980s -- Negotiating with hostage takers -- The life and times of Terry Waite -- Part IV -- Guerillas and Partisans -- The just war re-visited -- Guerillas, partisans, rebels -- Morality and resistance -- The SOE versus the Axis Powers -- The resistance movements in occupied Europe, 1940-1946 -- The inspiration of leaders in exile -- The fates of Petain and Laval of Vichy France -- Resistance in Norway -- The German invasion and Quisling -- Nazi terror tactics -- The attacks on the heavy water plant -- The end of the war -- The fate of the traitors -- The moral power of resistance -- Guerillas in Cuba -- The character and aims of Fidel Castro and Ernesto ('Che') Guevara -- A very short history of Cuba -- Guerilla war in Cuba -- When and why did Fidel Castro embrace Marxism? -- Carl von Clausewitz on guerilla war -- Part V -- Pacifism in the East -- The Jains -- Buddhism and the Buddha -- The Emperor Asoka -- Avoiding war -- Mahatma Gandhi -- Ghosananda -- Buddhist violence and its supposed justifications -- The survival of Buddhist traditions -- Pacifism in the West -- Pacifism and early Christianity -- Pacifist sects: Waldensians, Lollards, Mennonites -- The Society of Friends -- Papal teaching during and after the Cold War -- Pacifism not a unitary thesis -- Possible classifications -- Conscription and Conscience -- Conscription.

Quakers during the Boer war and the first world war -- The Vietnam war -- 'Heck, no, we won't go!' -- Campaigns (Law-abiding) -- The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament -- Bertrand Russell's tergiversations -- Campaigns (Non-law-abiding) -- The Committee of 100 -- Greenham Common -- Pugwash and the Test Ban Treaty -- The Pugwash conferences -- John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev -- Averell Harriman on the Test Ban Treaty -- The Test Ban negotiations -- The Cuban Missile Crisis -- The Test Ban Treaty is signed -- Detente and SALT -- Part VI -- Patriotism and Solidarity -- Patriotism and treason -- Patriotic veterans -- Patriotic journalists -- Solidarity -- Catholics and Quakers -- Quakers and the Cold War -- Quakers and terrorism -- The Catholic Worker Movement -- Two priests -- Utility, Positivism, Error, Amoralism -- Consequentialist nonsense -- War and utility -- 'Anything goes' -- Logical Positivism -- The error theory and quasi-realism -- Amoralism -- The Resources of Philosophy and Religion -- Religion, science, politics -- Realism versus anti-realism in ethics -- The common morality -- War and delusion -- Religion and philosophy -- Back Matter -- Appendices -- Civilian and other Caualties of Wars in SE Asia, Afghanistan and the Middle East (since 1964) -- Senator Joseph McCarthy -- Sources -- Also Available.

This book considers historical and current events from the standpoint of moral philosophy. It describes: real wars and the ways in which they have or have not been fought according to principles of justice; terrorism, torture and the effects of scientific discoveries on the way war is conducted; peace movements and the influences of religion on the ideology surrounding warfare. The book criticises the ethical theories of analytical philosophers in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2025. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.

Licensed e-book