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Palgrave Macmillan

Beyond Just War

A Virtue Ethics Approach

  • Book
  • © 2012

Overview

Authors:
  1. David K. Chan

    1. University of Wisconsin — Stevens Point, USA

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  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
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Keywords

About this book

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?'

Reviews

'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

Authors and Affiliations

  • University of Wisconsin — Stevens Point, USA

    David K. Chan

About the author

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.

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