Aristotle's Argument Essay: Can War Be Justified?

As Cierco(Source A) said to his son, “physical force… is characteristic of man.” Peace may last for some time, but differing views on complicated issues means fighting for what you believe is right. For example, the Cold War clearly supports this message because the US strongly believed in democratic values and they were fighting against the Soviet Union who desired to spread communism. The Cold War strengthened US politically because they maintained their democratic values and contained communism by helping out countries that were devastated after World War II. The US was strictly against communism because it harmed their democratic views and because this could not be solved through discussion, the Cold War was bound to happen. The US and USSR wanted to gain more allies through the spread of their own ideologies but, the Soviet Union clearly had a negative intent of spreading their power on the world. The US policy of containment weakened the Soviet Union because they were not able to spread communism and therefore led to the fall of their empire. This shows that war can either strengthen countries or weaken countries who abuse their use of power. Action must be taken against countries who have a negative purpose of spreading their power and if not resolved through discussion, this means going to

In his essay “The Moral Equivalent of War”, William James discusses the presence of war and militarism in society. It argues that in order for military feelings to be abdicated, a substitute must be introduced. The author supports this central point through historical evidence and reasoning.

The damage of wars is way too much that it should never happen under any circumstance. No one should ever initiate a war and claim it justified. Let’s see why war should not be justified.

The conflict of war and its effects have been debated throughout history. Some argue that there are other peaceful alternatives besides war that would lead to a better outcome, but in reality this is not the case. War is a natural part of human interactions, and even though it brings death and destruction, war will not cease to exist. Wars are the human way of getting one group to look superior than the other. The idea of a passive approach is ideal, but it is almost nearly impossible and may not always lead to the same outcome as if a war had taken place.

John F. Kennedy once said that “Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind”. Since the beginning of humanity many disputes have occurred, some dating back as early as The Roman Empire and ancient Chinese Dynasties. As long as humans live and develop different customs, there will most definitely be conflict.

The Just war theory maintains that war may be justified if fought only in certain circumstances, and only if certain restrictions are applied to the way in which war is fought. The theory that was first propounded by St Augustine of Hippo and St Ambrose of Milan ( 4th and 5th centuries AD) attempts to clarify two fundamental questions: ‘when is it right to fight?’ and ‘How should war be fought?’. Whereas Pacifists are people mainly Christians who reject the use of violence and the deliberate killing of civilians but claims that peace is intrinsically good and ought to be upheld either as a duty and that war can never be justifiable. However, Realists agree that, due to the

War arises when there is conflict. History tends to repeat itself. Many times in history, there are similarities in conflict. Lots of different wars took place because of a conflict that has already been fought over. Typically, people are killed over these conflicts. Radicalized religion and patriotism, organized killing, and religion/country expansion are all examples of conflict results that have occurred in both the Reformation, Renaissance, and World War I.

In the text “Aquinas on Law, Morality, and Politics (Aquinas, 164)”, Aquinas discusses the topic of war and killing. A question is asked that states “Is it always sinful to wage war?” and this question is met with 3 objection statements. The object statements say that it is sinful to declare war because those who live for war activities will die by participating in war activities and because of that they will be punished. Three other reasons as to why it is sinful to declare war is because war goes against the divine precept, it goes against the concept of peace, and war-like activities are not allowed in the church. Aquinas counters these objects by stating that there are 3 different kinds of criteria that are needed in order for a war

St. Augustine provided comments on morality of war from the Christian point of view (railing against the love of violence that war can engender) as did several critics in the intellectual flourishing from the 9th to 12th centuries. Just war theorists remind warriors and politicians alike that the principles of justice following war should be universalizable and morally ordered and that winning should not provide a license for imposing unduly harsh or punitive measures or that state or commercial interests should not dictate the form of new peace. “The attraction for jus post bellum thinkers is to return to the initial justice of the war”. This means that war is considered as self-defense.

‘War’ as defined by Webster’s Dictionary is a state of open and declared, hostile armed conflict between states or nations. Voltaire—the human personification of the Enlightenment period—says the following: “Famine, plague, and war are the three most famous ingredients of this wretched world…All animals are perpetually at war with each other…Air, earth and water are arenas of destruction. Defining war has been a political issue for centuries, and it poses a philosophical problem. Most philosophers will agree on war being a clash of arms, or a state of mutual tension between nations or states, distinguishing it from open rebellions, riots, and personal violence.

The theory of just war has been around for several centuries. According to Ramsey and Walzer, the notion of wars being just or unjust has been debated since the fifth century B.C. E. However, it was not until Aristotle that the term “Just War” was conceived to refer to the wars initiated by Hellenes against non-Hellenes (Russell, 3). In the years after Aristotle, the just war theory was placed on the back burner. The next time it came up was in the early years of the Christian empire. Traditionally, the men of the Christian army were nonviolent. As a result of not fighting, they were unable to protect themselves and their land from invaders. With this in mind, Augustine was able to justify fighting by declaring “that war itself was not intrinsically evil but, rather, going to war for the love of violence, cruelty enmity, greed, lust of power and ambition were the real evils from which the Christians should protect themselves” (C. Taslaman and F. Taslaman).

War is not born with human kind, as we discussed in class, there is evidence that about 10000 years ago, when agricultural settlement and some form of social organization started, there was no mass war. Before this period humans were living in egalitarian groups/tribes. With the advent of surplus production, a sort of trade/commerce started and societies evolved into hierarchical structures. Hierarchical structures imply some sort of domination from top to bottom and therefore can give rise to conflicts.

The Just War Theory is a doctrine founded by Saint Augustine which has helped bring much discussion and debate to wars and the morality to fight in them. Wars and fights between people have gone on forever and are not perceived to stop anytime soon so it is important that some people thought about when and why they should ever fight. For many years Christians never part toke in this fighting due to teachings of the Bible and Jesus' teaching on 'turning the other cheek' and 'live by the sword, die by the sword'. Saint Augustine would be one of the first to talk about how a Christian could be a soldier and serve God at the same time. Through this thought we would receive the Just War Theory which gave a set of requirements for someone to partake

In The Laws of War and Peace, De jure belli ac pacis– Paris, 1625 (2nd ed. Amsterdam 1631), Grotius was responding in part to Desiderius Erasmus' In Praise of Folly, which presented an impassioned and influential statement of Renaissance Catholic pacifism. Grotius wrote: “Fully convinced...that there is a common law among nations, which is valid alike for war and in war, I have had many and weighty reasons for undertaking to write upon the subject. Throughout the Christian world I observed a lack of restraint in relation to war, such as even barbarous races should be ashamed of; I observed that men rush to arms for slight causes, or no cause at all, and that when arms have once been taken up there is no longer any respect for law, divine

In this essay I will be giving the definition of war and conflict and I will be describing the causes of war and giving examples of wars that have happened because of the conflicts that I will be mentioning in my essay. The causes of war I will be looking at will be; Politics, Nationalism, Ideology, Land, resources, historical rivalry, ethnic conflict and religion. These are the main causes of war.