How Terrorism Is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence
OUP USA (2008)
| Abstract | What is terrorism? How is it different from other kinds of political violence? Why exactly is it wrong? Why is war often thought capable of being justified? On what grounds should we judge when the use of violence to be morally acceptable? It is often thought that using violence to uphold and enforce the rule of law can be justified, that violence used in self-defense is acceptable, and that some liberation movements can be excused for using violence--but that terrorism is always wrong. How persuasive are these arguments, and on what bases should we judge them? How Terrorism is Wrong collects articles by Virginia Held that offer a moral assessment of various forms of political violence, with terrorism the focus of much of the discussion. Here and throughout, Held examines possible causes discussed, including the connection between terrorism and humiliation. Held also considers military intervention, conventional war, intervention to protect human rights, violence to prevent political change, and the status and requirements of international law. She looks at the cases of Rwanda, Kosovo, Iraq, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Finally, she explores questions of who has legitimate authority to engage in justifiable uses of violence, whether groups can be responsible for ethnic violence, and how the media should cover terrorism. Held discusses appropriate ways of engaging in moral evaluation and improving our moral recommendations concerning the uses of violence. Just war theory has been developed for violence between the military forces of conflicting states, but much contemporary political violence is not of this kind. Held considers the guidance offered by such traditional moral theories as Kantian ethics and utilitarianism, and also examines what the newer approach of the ethics of care can contribute to our evaluations of violence. Care is obviously antithetical to violence since violence destroys what care takes pains to build; but the ethics of care recognizes that violence is not likely to disappear from human affairs, and can offer realistic understandings of how best to reduce it. | |||||||||
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| ISBN(s) | 9780195329599 0195329597 | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesVirginia Held (1997). The Media and Political Violence. Journal of Ethics 1 (2):187-202.
Virginia Held (2004). Terrorism and War. Journal of Ethics 8 (1):59-75.
Stathis N. Kalyvas (2004). The Paradox of Terrorism in Civil War. Journal of Ethics 8 (1):97-138.
C. A. J. Coady (2011). How Terrorism is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence, by Virginia Held. Mind 119 (476):1186-1189.
Matthew R. Silliman (2004). Weighing Evils. Social Philosophy Today 20:129-136.
Susan Hawthorne (2012). How Terrorism is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence. By Virginia Held. Hypatia 27 (1):219-222.
Kai Nielsen (1981). On Justifying Violence. Inquiry 24 (1):21 – 57.
Johanna Oksala (2012). Foucault, Politics, and Violence. Northwestern University Press.
N. Sussmann (forthcoming). Can Just War Theory Delegitimate Terrorism? European Journal of Political Theory.
Verena Erlenbusch (2011). Notes on Violence: Walter Benjamin's Relevance for the Study of Terrorism. Journal of Global Ethics 6 (2):167-178.
Trudy Govier (2005). Physical Violence in Political Conflicts : Grounds for a Strong Presumption Against Violence. In Timothy Shanahan (ed.), Philosophy 9/11: Thinking About the War on Terrorism. Open Court.
Vinit Haksar (2012). Violence in a Spirit of Love: Gandhi and the Limits of Non-Violence. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 15 (3):303-324.
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