Beyond Just War

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

   PDF

2. Introduction: The State of Ethics of War

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 1-7

3. The Moral Problem of War

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 8-29

4. Just War Reconsidered

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 30-56

5. From Rights to Virtues

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 57-66

6. War as an Evil

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 67-85

7. The Philosophy of Co-existence

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 86-111

8. Theoretical Implications and Challenges

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 112-130

9. Practical Implications and Challenges

   • David K. Chan

   Pages 131-172

10. Is War Ever Justified?

    • David K. Chan

    Pages 173-186

11. Back Matter

    Pages 187-223

    PDF

Unlike most books on the ethics of war, this book rejects the 'just war' tradition, proposing a virtue ethics of war to take its place. Like torture, war cannot be justified. It answers the question: 'If war is a very great evil, would a leader with courage, justice, compassion, and all the other moral virtues ever choose to fight a war?'

• ethics
• Just War
• morality
• philosophy
• Virtue Ethics

'David Chan offers a Copernican Revolution in thinking about the ethics of war. He utilizes virtue ethics instead of the traditional deontological and consequentialist approaches to just war theory. Arguing that the just war tradition has been overly permissive, Chan asks us to consider how virtuous leaders would approach war as a tragic choice, which forces the virtuous person to choose the evil of war. With subtlety and historical insight, Chan situates his own 'philosophy of co-existence' somewhere between pacifism and traditional just war theory.' - Andrew Fiala, Department of Philosophy, California State University, USA

• University of Wisconsin — Stevens Point, USA

  David K. Chan

DAVID K. CHAN is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, USA, where he has taught since 2001. He earned his doctorate in philosophy at Stanford University. His scholarly research and writing is in moral psychology, virtue ethics, the ethics of war, medical ethics, and ancient Greek philosophy.

Policies and ethics