Walzer's Conception of Just & Unjust Wars
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Michael Walzer has discussed a conception of just and unjust wars, stating that no war can be just on both sides. Someone has to be at fault, and war is unjust for the one at fault and just for the defender against aggression. There can also be wars that are unjust on both sides, however, because the idea of justice does not pertain to them or because the antagonists are both aggressors. Many philosophers and theorists in the past have considered the nature of war and whether war can ever be considered "right," and one such theorist was Desiderius Erasmus, a Christian philosopher of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. The question is whether Erasmus can be considered a pacifist or a just war thinker, whether he eschews war altogether or only requires that war be waged in service of some greater good. Consider how Walzer has delineated his theory of the just and unjust war. Under this paradigm, the theory of international aggression can be summed up in six propositions: 1) There is an international society composed of independent states. 2) This international society has a law that establishes the rights of its members, above all protecting the rights of territorial integrity and political sovereignty. 3) Any use of force or imminent threat of force by one state against the political sovereignty or territorial integrity of another is considered aggression and is also a criminal act. 4) Two types of violent response are justified by aggression--a war
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eveloped a theory that a war to resist aggression or to enforce justice was not only permissible but was a Christian duty. The way enforcing justice was defined, though, nearly any war could be supported. St. Thomas Aquinas followed Augustine in promulgating rules for the just war and created guidelines as to what was just and unjust:
One result of this was that pacifism was thought of as cowardice, at best, and punished as heresy at worst. The concept nearly disappeared during the Middle Ages. Remnants of early pacifist thinking could, however, be detected in the beliefs of the Waldenses, the Lollards and a few other heretical sects (Faludy 148-149).
In the "Dulce bellum inexpertis," Erasmus asks how man, created by God for peace and loving kindness, can get himself involved in the cruelty and destructiveness of war:
First of al, if one considers the outward appearance of the human body, does it not become clear at once that nature, or rather God, created this being not for war, but for friendship, not for destruction, but for preservation, not for aggressiveness but for kindness (Phillips 310).
Some such conflicts are even between Christians, and these conflicts are often justified by recourse to the idea of the just wa
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1831
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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