On War and Morality / / Robert L. Holmes.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton Legacy Lib. eBook Package 1980-1999
• VerfasserIn: Holmes, Robert L.,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2014]; ©1989
• Year of Publication: 2014
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: Studies in Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy ; 982
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (326 p.)

The threat to the survival of humankind posed by nuclear weapons has been a frightening and essential focus of public debate for the last four decades and must continue to be so if we are to avoid destroying ourselves and the natural world around us. One unfortunate result of preoccupation with the nuclear threat, however, has been a new kind of "respectability" accorded to conventional war. In this radical and cogent argument for pacifism, Robert Holmes asserts that all war--not just nuclear war--has become morally impermissible in the modern world. Addressing a wide audience of informed and concerned readers, he raises dramatic questions about the concepts of "political realism" and nuclear deterrence, makes a number of persuasive suggestions for nonviolent alternatives to war, and presents a rich panorama of thinking about war from St. Augustine to Reinhold Niebuhr and Herman Kahn.Holmes's positions are compellingly presented and will provoke discussion both among convinced pacifists and among those whom he calls "militarists." "Militarists," we realize after reading this book, include the majority of us who live a friendly and peaceful personal life while supporting a system which, if Holmes is correct, guarantees war and risks eventual human extinction.Originally published in 1989.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- PREFACE -- INTRODUCTION -- ONE. Violence and the Perspective of Morality -- Two. Political Realism: The Challenge to Morality in International Affairs -- THREE. Reason of State, Military Necessity, and Domestic Security -- FOUR. St. Augustine on the Justification of War -- FIVE. Can War Be Morally Justified? The Just War Theory -- Six. The Killing of Innocent Persons in Wartime -- SEVEN. Nuclear Deterrence: The Illusion of Security -- EIGHT. The Alternative to War -- SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX