Deck 8: Confronting

Question 1

Do you think that each or any of the four moral traditions Minch identifies supports just war theory as well as personal rational autonomy? Or do you think that the JWT is too weak or too strong for any of these traditions? Do any of the four moral traditions support participation in a war one judges to be immoral?

Answer 1

Utilitarianism seems to require more than JWT, or rather JWT is too weak for utilitarianism. A war may meet all of the criteria for a just war, and yet we would still be worse off in terms of utility than simply not fighting. Christian ethics, in its present form, seems to support just war theory rather nicely, especially given the fact that Augustine was the originator of the just war theory. However, Christianity cannot ipso facto support just war theory, since Christians of the first two to three centuries were entirely pacifist, following Jesus himself. There has always been a pacifist tradition within Christianity, going all the way back to its founder.
Deontology seems to, in one sense, be stronger than just war theory. After all, insofar as deontology is a formulation of the Golden Rule, it seems obvious that one would not want a war waged against themselves for any reason. And therefore, one ought not to wage war against anyone else. However, it may be that in some way, a state would expect, if not want, another state to wage war on it, just so long as the first state was acting immorally against the second, and the second met all the just war criteria. But this seems a big stretch.
Virtue ethics is a more difficult analysis, since there are many different virtues. Compassion is a virtue, which seems to imply that one should have compassion for one's enemy. But so is justice a virtue, and if a cause is just, it is prudent to fight for that cause. However, it may be that no war is ever just, or could ever meet the just war criteria, and virtue ethics could not support it. Perhaps JWT is too strong for virtue ethics, since it seems many different virtues could support a justification for war. Since all of these traditions require personal rational autonomy, or rather, put the responsibility for decisions and choices squarely on the shoulders of the individual making the decision, each of them denies the possibility that a person could be moral and participate in an immoral war. This is a matter of simple logic.
JOHNSON

Question 2

According to Minch, personal autonomy is an essential feature of morality.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

How does the Qur'an answer the question: Why is humanity prone to war?

A) Although we are born innocent, free of sin, we are prone to war as a result of the corrupting influences of society.
B) Peace is attainable only when human beings surrender to God and live in accord with God's will; since there are people who have not submitted to God, there is war.
C) Individual drive for power, wealth, prestige, and all other desires for self-aggrandizement lead to strife.
D) All of the above

Answer 3

D

Question 4

Which of the following does Johnson say is the least useful of the just war formulations?

A) Defense against wrongful attack
B) Punishment of evil
C) Annexation of land
D) Revenge

Question 5

Does Minch miss one important moral value - namely duty or loyalty to one's country or community?

Question 6

In just war theory, jus ad bellum deals with the justification or proper reasons for going to war and jus in bello deals with what is just conduct in war.

Question 7

Minch argues that since personal autonomy is a necessary precondition to assigning moral worth to any given action, and since military personnel lack autonomy, military personnel cannot be held accountable for their actions during wartime.

Question 8

"Supreme emergency" is a term that philosophers and scholars of war and peace give to situations where some think gross violence may be justified to protect people or values, or in circumstances where a great deal is at stake. But if one is willing to violate the same values that one is seeking to protect, is one engaged in a hypocritical and incoherent enterprise? Can violating a value (say, the prohibition against murder) to protect against (in this case) murder, be moral? Is it a matter of how many lives are at stake? How so?
One may think that such occasions as engender "supreme emergency" are incoherent and hypocritical. How can one murder in order to prevent murder? Would it then be justifiable for someone to murder you in order to prevent your murder of the murderer, ad infinitum? Ad absurdum? There is simply a logical contradiction.

Question 9

Can duty to one's country or community override one's personal moral conclusions?

Question 10

Pacifism is not an option for Muslims, Hashmi notes, because the use of force is sanctioned by God as a necessary response to the existence of evil in the world.

Question 11

Many argue that the existence of nuclear weapons makes just war reasoning obsolete. Johnson disagrees. What is his argument for this decision? Do you find it convincing? Are there some respects in which just war theory may be obsolete, while in others it is not? Why would someone argue this position, which Johnson denies?

Question 12

Which of the following is NOT among the classic justifications for the use of force?

A) Protection of the innocent
B) Punishment of evil
C) Defense against wrongful attack
D) Preemption

Question 13

What is the primary concern of Minch's paper?

A) To analyze just war theory
B) To apply just war theory to the war in Afghanistan
C) To analyze the meaning of the term "hero"
D) All of the above

Question 14

Johnson notes that there are two deep moral viewpoints on war in the Western tradition, just war theory and pacifism.

Question 15

Minch argues that if a war is immoral, soldiers should __________.

A) Disregard liberal notions of morality
B) Perform their duty anyway
C) Refuse to participate
D) Serve as noncombatants

Question 16

Hashmi notes that the concept of jihad is dynamic-it is still evolving and adapting to changes in international realities.

Question 17

Do we have greater responsibilities than to our countries and communities? If so, to what or to whom?

Question 18

Minch argues that to wear the uniform of the U.S. armed forces is to take up one's position as a hero in the moral community.

Question 19

According to Johnson, just war theory sanctions the use of preemptive force.

Question 20

Johnson thinks that violence can be used in moral ways to protect certain values, as long as the violence is not disproportionate to the value of the values. Summarize his position in your own words and the steps that he uses to reach his conclusion. Then evaluate his argument with reference to the following questions: Who gets to decide what values are deserving of such force and when they so deserve? How do we know when the violence has become disproportional to the values themselves?

Question 21

Holmes argues that the only intrinsic value in government lies in contributing to the preservation and enhancement of the lives of individual persons.

Question 22

Holmes writes that the assumptions that nonviolence wouldn't have worked against Hitler and that violence was successful in World War II require some qualification. Explain his qualifications to these views in your own words. Do you agree that these assumptions about nonviolence are limited and only assumptions? Or has history given them support? Explain your answer with specific examples.

Question 23

Holmes argues that the fundamental problem we face in addressing questions of security is the proliferation of nuclear weapons.

Question 24

Holmes argues that the commitment to nonviolence must __________

A) Stem from Christian belief
B) Be adopted as a way of life
C) Be adopted by all, if it is to succeed
D) All of the above

Question 25

Gandhi argues that there can be no hope for nonviolence until we each conquer our own greed.

Question 26

How does Holmes propose to displace the war system?

A) There must be a new system of cooperation.
B) There must be recognition that the individual (and not the state) is of primary moral significance.
C) Peace education must be a priority.
D) All of the above

Question 27

Do you think the concept of jihad is often misunderstood in the United States? Did your understanding change after reading this essay?

Question 28

Based on this article, what misconceptions do you think most non-Muslims probably have with regard to the Islamic tradition's teachings about war? Do you think a better understanding of those teachings might improve relations between The west and the Islamic world? What specific principles ought to be emphasized?

Question 29

What does Gandhi say is the greatest force man has been endowed with?

A) Meditation
B) Nonviolence
C) Knowledge
D) Language

Question 30

What does Gandhi say is the root of all evil?

A) Pride
B) Greed
C) Violence
D) Ignorance

Question 31

Gandhi claims that even cowardice is preferable to violence.

Question 32

What does Holmes mean by "the war system"? What are some of its components? Is Holmes correct that many of our institutions, cultures, societies, economies, and politics lead directly to war? Explain why or why not.

Question 33

Do you agree with Gandhi that love leads to nonviolence and that nonviolence is the "weapon of the strong?" Explain in your own words what he means by characterizing love as law.

Question 34

Do you think that if people took the just war theory and Islamic conditions for war seriously, war would be much less frequent? Or do you think that religions tend to justify war more than they limit war? Consider too, the possibility that many may use religious language to justify war even when the theology and ethics of any given religion may not, in fact, provide such justification.

Question 35

Which of the following does Hashmi say is an illegitimate reason for war, according to Islam?

A) Spreading Islam
B) Responding to evil
C) Desiring plunder
D) Defending against attack

Question 36

Holms argues that a fundamental misconception is that security can be achieved through armaments.

Question 37

Why does Holmes claim that the "occasional Hitlers of this world" are not our real problem. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Question 38

Is Holmes's argument for nonviolence unrealistic? If so, provide specific reasons why. Or is his strategy in fact more practical than war? If war has not put war to an end, do you think that nonviolent approaches might be more effective? Why or why not?

Question 39

According to Hashmi, the Qur'an __________.

A) Does not pronounce on violence
B) Sanctions violence in response to evil
C) Forbids all violence
D) All of the above

Question 40

How does Gandhi characterize non-violence?

A) Meek submission to the will of the evil-doer
B) Conscious suffering
C) Passive acceptance of evil
D) Turn the other cheek

Question 41

How does Pilisuk define violence?

A) An affront to the life of another human being
B) An affront on the well being of another human being
C) An affront on the dignity of another human being
D) All of the above

Question 42

Which of the following is a key concept in Berry's argument?

A) Peace and economics
B) Education
C) Self-sufficiency
D) All of the above

Question 43

Pilisuk argues that global poverty is an accident of globalization.

Question 44

Gandhi thinks that love leads to nonviolence and that nonviolence is inseparable from truth and suffering. Do you see the connections between love, strength, truth, and suffering? Make a chart that shows the connections between these aspects of life and explain the relationships between each as Gandhi sees them.

Question 45

Berry notes that the paramount doctrine of the economic and technological euphoria of recent decades has been that everything depends on __________.

A) Trade
B) Democracy
C) Innovation
D) Peace

Question 46

Berry argues that the "developed nations" have placed the "free market" on par with God.

Question 47

Fry argues that war is a phenomena explained by natural causal factors.

Question 48

Fry express hopes that war can be abolished.

Question 49

What evidence does Fry present for the conclusion that war is not an evolutionary characteristic of history?

A) The fact that history shows a plenitude of wars does not prove that war-making is an evolutionary adaptation
B) Archeological evidence contradicts the notion that humanity has constantly been at war
C) The proposed psychological mechanism is not a universal human trait
D) All of the above

Question 50

Fry argues that war serves an evolutionary function, namely, it serves to reduce competition for scarce natural resources.

Question 51

Some have suggested that the efforts to get Britain out of India were successful because (unlike Hitler's Third Reich, for example) Britain was a country that could be moved by moral persuasion, and thus nonviolent efforts may be successful with other conflicts. What do you think? Do nonviolent strategies have to depend on moral persuasion, or do they have recourse to other means. Was there something particularly moral about the English?

Question 52

Which of the following best captures the aim of Fry's essay?

A) War has an evolutionary function and is therefore inevitable
B) War has an evolutionary function but is not inevitable
C) War is not an evolutionary function and is therefore not inevitable
D) War is not an evolutionary function but is nonetheless inevitable

Question 53

Make a list of similarities and differences between Gandhi's conception of nonviolent strategy and Holmes's view in Reading 61.

Question 54

Pilisuk argues that to genuinely understand violence, we cannot examine individual acts of violence, but must look to the underlying patter of violence.

Question 55

Which of the following is a key concept in Pilisuk's argument?

A) Nonviolence
B) Transcendental violence
C) Structural violence
D) Functional violence

Question 56

Berry argues for a decentralized world economy which seeks to ensure that every nation and region is self-sufficient in producing life-supporting goods.

Question 57

Berry begins his essay by claiming that we will soon think that 9/11 brought an era of unquestioned technological and economic optimism to an end. Does he make his case? Why or why not? Do you agree?

Question 58

Pilisuk argues that the global economy is a social structure that __________.

A) Consigns persons and communities to roles that increase the likelihood of violence in many forms
B) Promotes violence against workers, consumers, and indigenous communities
C) Engenders an environment that sustains the spread of poverty, AIDS among women and terrorism
D) All of the above

Question 59

Berry claims that the time will come when we cannot remember the horrors of September 11 without simultaneously remembering the unquestioning technological and economic optimism that ended that day.

Question 60

Many have argued that Marxist economics took on religious significance in the Soviet Union and that people treated its tenets as unquestionable truth. Do you agree with Berry that Western capitalist countries run the risk of imbuing market forces with similar godlike powers? Explain your agreement or disagreement with specific examples.

Question 61

Why do you think Berry ties consumption, saving, and conserving to a peaceable economy? Is he right? Explain.

Question 62

Sterba argues that the definition of terrorism endorsed by the State Department is deeply problematic.

Question 63

Owen writes the poem from the perspective of a__________.

A) Pacifist
B) Father
C) Diplomat
D) Soldier

Question 64

According to Berrigan, peace-making requires __________.

A) Sacrifice
B) Courage
C) Disruption
D) All of the above

Question 65

Owen calls the claim that it is right to die for one's country "the old lie," but many people have believed it to be true for centuries. What does it mean to die for one's country? Do all soldiers who die (or kill) actually do so for their country? Recall the essays by Minch and Berrigan. How do their claims inform your answers?

Question 66

Perhaps there is a danger in this poem. By so vividly painting an image of horror, and then decrying the goodness of battle, one could conclude that Owen is simply reacting to the horror, rather than the moral problem of killing itself. On this understanding, profound asymmetry between one military and another would lessen the scandal of war for the overpowering side (because casualties would be so much fewer). This is a fact of war known better now than in Owen's day. Now, one military can kill with drones and long-distance weapons and dramatically reduce its own casualties. Thus the horror is reduced, and perhaps war itself less questioned. What are your thoughts?

Question 67

Berrigan argues that waging peace takes as much courage as waging war.

Question 68

Wilfred Owen composed the poem during World War I.

Question 69

What is the "old lie" that the poet references?

A) That it is noble to die for one's country
B) That war is noble
C) That there is no winner in war
D) All of the above

Question 70

Berrigan writes of he "wasting disease of normalcy" that afflicts us. Do you see the connection between Hamlet's critique of "That monster, custom, who doth all sense eat," and Holmes's and Minch's arguments?

Question 71

Which of the following is not an image Owen employs in the poem?

A) Men marching without boots
B) Five-Nines dropping
C) A green sea
D) A red dawn

Question 72

Sterba argues that under certain circumstances, suicide bombing may be justified.

Question 73

Do you agree that national self-righteousness is a sign of weakness? Why or why not? Is there a difference between national self-righteousness and patriotism? If so, try to define that difference with specific criteria.

Question 74

Which of the following is a key concept in Berrigan's writing?

A) Normalcy
B) Complacency
C) Drudgery
D) Decency

Question 75

How much "normalcy" do you think we should be willing to sacrifice in order to live in peace? What is and is not expendable for the sake of peace? To attain peace we must be willing to sacrifice the lives of "non-combatants". We has a society find this unacceptable, and so we go to war.

Question 76

Berrigan refers to normalcy as __________.

A) A great social hope
B) The cornerstone of society
C) A wasting disease
D) The scourge of modern man

Question 77

Do you think that Berrigan and Mann (quoted in Minch) are right in their claims that more work, sacrifice, and courage are necessary to make peace prevail than to wage war? Consider such massive undertakings as Gandhi's Quit India movement and the American civil rights movement as well as World War II and the American Civil War.

Question 78

Owen's poem recounts the glory of battle.

Question 79

Sterba defends a view he calls "just war pacifism"-a view according to which terrorism may sometimes be justified.

Question 80

Berrigan notes that during times of war we accept a moratorium on normal human hope, for marriage, for community, for friendship and for moral conduct toward strangers and the innocent.