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Single Idea 23880

[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / E. Policies / 1. War / b. Justice in war ]

Full Idea

At the time when war was a profession, fighting men had a morality whereby any act of war, in accordance with the customs of war, and contributing to victory, was legitimate and right.

Gist of Idea

When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war

Source

Simone Weil (Is There a Marxist Doctrine? [1943], p.173)

Book Ref

Weil,Simone: 'Oppression and Liberty' [Routledge 1955], p.173

A Reaction

Note the caveat about 'customs', which were largely moral. See the discussion of killing the non-combatant prisoners in Shakespeare's 'Henry V'.

The 14 ideas with the same theme [ethics of how wars are fought]:

23565 Our obedience to the king erases any crimes we commit for him [Shakespeare]
23585 It is permissible in a just cause to capture a place in neutral territory [Grotius]
7236 War gives no right to inflict more destruction than is necessary for victory [Rousseau]
23880 When war was a profession, customary morality justified any act of war [Weil]
23583 If an aggression is unjust, the constraints on how it is fought are much stricter [Rawls]
23593 Jus ad bellum and Jus in bello are independent; unjust wars can be fought in a just way [Walzer]
23573 For moral reasons, a just war must be a limited war [Walzer]
23577 Napoleon said 'I don't care about the deaths of a million men' [Walzer]
23600 Proportionality in fighting can't be judged independently of the justice of each side [McMahan]
23603 Can an army start an unjust war, and then fight justly to defend their own civilians? [McMahan]
23611 Soldiers cannot freely fight in unjust wars, just because they behave well when fighting [McMahan]
23612 The law of war differs from criminal law; attacking just combatants is immoral, but legal [McMahan]
23617 If the unjust combatants are morally excused they are innocent, so how can they be killed? [McMahan]
20616 During wars: proportional force, fair targets, fair weapons, safe prisoners, no reprisals [Tuckness/Wolf]