Warfare ethics in sunzi'sart of war?Historical controversies and contemporary perspectives
Journal of Military Ethics 11 (2):114-135 (2012)
| Abstract | Abstract Contemporary English and Chinese scholars alike have interpreted Sunzi's Art of War as advocating amoralism in warfare. That charge has a long history in pre-modern China and has not been fully refuted. This essay argues that the alleged amoral Machiavellianism is more appropriate for ancient Qin military thought than for Sunzi. The third chapter of Sunzi's treatise contains a distinctive moral perspective that cannot be found in the military thought of the state of Qin, which succeeded in defeating all other states in the Period of the Warring States. Such a moral perspective contains both ad bellum and in bello norms. I submit that my interpretation of Sunzi's warfare ethics can provide an important resource for the People's Liberation Army of China to construct full-scale just war ethics that is similar to Western understandings | |||||||||
| Keywords | No keywords specified (fix it) | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,653 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesPing-Cheung Lo (2012). The Art of War Corpus and Chinese Just War Ethics Past and Present. Journal of Religious Ethics 40 (3):404-446.
Torkel Brekke (ed.) (2006). The Ethics of War in Asian Civilizations: A Comparative Perspective. Routledge.
Sandra A. Wawrytko (2007). Winning Ways: The Viability (Dao) and Virtuosity (de) of Sunzi's Methods of Warfare (Bingfa). Journal of Chinese Philosophy 34 (4):561–579.
Ian Clark (1988). Waging War: A Philosophical Introduction. Oxford University Press.
Ellen Y. Zhang (2012). Weapons Are Nothing but Ominous Instruments: The Daodejing's View on War and Peace. Journal of Religious Ethics 40 (3):473-502.
Thomas Frank (2009). Reframing Asymmetrical Warfare : Beyond the Just War Idea. In Ted van Baarda & Désirée Verweij (eds.), The Moral Dimension of Asymmetrical Warfare: Counter-Terrorism, Democratic Values and Military Ethics. Martinus Nijhoff.
David Rodin (ed.) (2007). War, Torture and Terrorism: Ethics and War in the 21st Century. Blackwell Pub..
Andrew Ede (2011). Waiting to Exhale: Chaos, Toxicity and the Origins of the U.S. Chemical Warfare Service. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics 39 (1):28-33.
Jim Storr (2009). The Human Face of War. Continuum.
Joseph Boyle (2011). Waging Defensive War: The Idea and its Normative Importance. Journal of Military Ethics 10 (3):148-159.
Stephen E. Lammers (1991). William Temple and the Bombing of Germany: An Exploration in the Just War Tradition. Journal of Religious Ethics 19 (1):71 - 92.
Aaron Stalnaker (2012). Xunzi's Moral Analysis of War and Some of its Contemporary Implications. Journal of Military Ethics 11 (2):97-113.
C. O'Driscoll (2012). A 'Fighting Chance' or Fighting Dirty? Irregular Warfare, Michael Gross and the Spartans. European Journal of Political Theory 11 (2):112-130.
Analytics
Monthly downloads
Sorry, there are not enough data points to plot this chart.
|
Added to index2012-09-11Total downloads0Recent downloads (6 months)0How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
