Just War: An American Reflection on the Morality of War in Our Time

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"War," Peter Temes writes, "is always wrong but sometimes necessary." With that principle at its center, The Just War offers a critical history of Just War thinking, beginning with ancient epics and extending through American responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11. More than a challenging new appraisal of Just War's history, Mr. Temes's book proposes a radically new vision of Just War thinking, one that respects the received tradition but takes account of the moral experience of today's world. He sees the Gulf War, the turmoil of
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More About This Book

Overview

"War," Peter Temes writes, "is always wrong but sometimes necessary." With that principle at its center, The Just War offers a critical history of Just War thinking, beginning with ancient epics and extending through American responses to the terrorist attacks of September 11. More than a challenging new appraisal of Just War's history, Mr. Temes's book proposes a radically new vision of Just War thinking, one that respects the received tradition but takes account of the moral experience of today's world. He sees the Gulf War, the turmoil of Yugoslavia, Israel's Occupied Territories, and questions about Iraq and the "war on terror" as moral challenges that cannot be easily resolved but must nevertheless be addressed. Looking closely at the history of Islam, the philosophy of Jihad, Christian thought, the experience of the Crusades, and the Hebrew Bible's teachings about war, he considers their lessons with our modern experience in mind. His clear descriptions of the writings of European thinkers on war, including Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel, are focused on the meanings these ideas must have for us today. And Mr. Temes speaks directly to the central moral questions about war, arriving at the core principles of a Just War philosophy for our time: that it acknowledges the preciousness and value of all human life; that it is a war about the future and not about the past; and that it strengthens the rights of individuals.
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Editorial Reviews

Tampa Tribune
Challeng[es] us to form a new moral view of war.
Virginia Quarterly Review
It's hard to imagine a more timely examination of the justifications of war. Should be required reading for those who beat war's drum.
Canadian Military Journal
The book...is...the best single work on the subject of Just War that I have read in the past 20 years.
—Major Arthur Gans
Midwest Book Review
More than just a history...considers the idea of 'just war thinking'...probing the philosophy behind justifications for war.
Forecast
The author takes a new look at "just war theory"...
San Francisco Chronicle
"Temes performs a great civic service...reading and discussing 'The Just War' seems almost a necessary task"
Publishers Weekly
Temes, president of Antioch New England Graduate School and author of Against School Reform, delivers a philosophical argument about the ethics of war; he not only wants to inform readers but to convert them as well. His cause, "a personal preoccupation" as he calls it, is just war philosophy, which both accepts war as an inevitability and provides moral imperatives "not only between right and wrong but often between wrong and wrong." Although he intends the book for academics and nonacademics, he relies heavily (but quite lucidly) on a daunting roster of thinkers (Cicero, St. Augustine, Aquinas, Grotius, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, von Clausewitz, Orwell, Arendt and others) to create a moral-historical framework for examining the implications of war. Temes argues that war has evolved from the tribal orientation (with a focus on the honor of the individual) to a more modern notion (with a focus on the geopolitical concerns of the state). In this historical progression, moral burdens have slowly shifted from the individual to the state, and as a result, Temes rightly worries that "we risk a loss of the humane." As an antidote to this loss, just war philosophy condones war only when the war itself sanctifies human life, when it strengthens the principles of individual rights and when its objectives concern the future and not the past. Although a timely and intelligent commentary on the recent war in Iraq, the book's chief gift is its empowerment of the reader to make informed moral observations on future wars, which appear sadly inevitable. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781566635349
  • Publisher: Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
  • Publication date: 10/20/2003
  • Edition number: 1
  • Pages: 240
  • Product dimensions: 6.20 (w) x 8.66 (h) x 0.81 (d)

Meet the Author

Peter S. Temes is president of the Antioch New England Graduate School and formerly head of the Great Books Foundation. He has taught at every level of American education, including a course on the moral principles of war at Harvard University and the University of Chicago. His most recent book is Against School Reform (And in Praise of Great Teaching). He lives in Fairfield, Connecticut.
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Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction: The Dual Nature of War 3
1 "We Go to War That We May Have Peace" 9
2 The Fundamental Ideas of Just War 41
3 The Catholic Vocabulary of War: The Center and the Fringe of Catholic Just War Doctrine 76
4 Muslim and Jewish Just War Traditions: The Center and the Fringe 94
5 The Questions of Sequence and Scale 127
6 Saying No and Saying Yes: Protest and the Integrity of Language in Times of War 138
7 A Just War Theory for the Twenty-First Century 166
8 Three Concluding Principles 180
Afterword: On the Second Gulf War 199
Index 207
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Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews

  • Anonymous

    Posted October 29, 2004

    Deep thinking about war

    An excellent book, covering the core moral ideas about war in Christian, Jewish and Muslim teachings, and bringing those ideas to bear on the world we live in today. Great stuff.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

  • Anonymous

    Posted May 9, 2004

    Disappointing Reformulation of Just War

    I was disappointed by this book. It tries to cover too much in too little space and offers an idiosyncratic approach to the Just War tradition. I found his proposed rewrite of Just War much less helpful than the traditional approach. Instead of Temes, I recommend anything by James Turner Johnson.

    Was this review helpful? Yes  NoThank you for your feedback.   Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
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