War and Moral Responsibility [antikvár]

PREFACEPhilosophy Public Affairs was founded in the belief that issues of public concern often have a philosophical dimension and that a philo-sophical examination of these issues can contribute to their clarification and to their resolution. The editors believe that this expectation is borne out by the following essays, drawn from the first two volumes of Philosophy S- Public Affairs, and written by lawyers and political scientists as well as by philosophers. Part i of this volume contains a symposium on the conduct of war, which examines the ethical and légal sources of restrictions on military methods and aims. The sym-posiasts, Thomas Nagel, Richard B. Brandt, and R. M. Hare, relate the details of their discussion to the most général and fundamental considérations of moral theory. Here the traditional theoretical con-troversy between utilitarianism and anti-utilitarianism is shown to have important practical conséquences. This debate in turn is the subject of Michael Walzer's essay on the dilemmas of moral action and the problem of "dirty hands" in politics.The essays in Part n focus on problems arising out of World War II and the Vietnam war. Here Michael Walzer discusses the unique character of Nazism and asks whether ultimate evil of this sort does not permit those who oppose it to set aside the normal prohibitions on military conduct. Sanford Levinson examines the Nuremberg trials and, in particular, their attempt to establish canons of responsibility within the elaborate bureaucratie organizations that govern modem nations and their military forces. Richard Wasserstrom challenges some wide-