Thomas Nagel Thomas Nagel totally rejects the principle that

Nagel proves himself an absolutist in his firm stand that there are no circumstances under which noncombatants should be killed. He emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between combatants (soldiers) and noncombatants (children, women who bear children or offer comfort to soldiers, supporting personnel such as drivers, cooks, etc.) on ôthe basis of their immediate threat or harmfulnessö (70). Support personnel actions are peripheral according to Nagel and therefore not directly the cause of danger. He offers the example of medical personnel and the wounded in Vietnam, stating that although it may be more efficient to shoot medical officers and let t

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olutist philosophy would be against total war, regardless of how many lives might be saved. The utilitarian position in contrast is self-serving in that it holds that individuals may devise moral schemes that will favor their own ends. This is not a view with which Nagel would agree; he takes the moral high ground. Although G.E.M. Anscombe, Thomas Nagel and John Rawls all agree that dropping the atom bomb on Hiroshima was a great moral wrong, their reasoning of why the bombing was wrong differs. The decision by the United States government to use the atom bomb was based on the concept of utilitarianism. The United States believed that the Japanese people would not surrender, and fight to their death. Therefore dropping the atom bomb avoided further extensive fighting and expedited the end of the war. The reasoning would be that millions of Japanese people were saved at the cost of the lives of the victims of Hiroshima. It was felt that the atom bomb was the best choice among all options. In this sense the United States government was determining and defining every element of moral philosophy, and devising a moral scheme that favored its own ends. In the Kantian view, the United States believing and feeling that dropping th
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Approximate Word count = 1420
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)