Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: War and Peace

  • ‘One Man’s Terrorist is Another Man’s Freedom Fighter’

    Often and thoughtlessly repeated, 'One man's terrorist in another man's freedom fighter' is one of those sayings that cry out for logical and philosophical analysis. Competent analysis will show that clear-thinking persons ought to avoid the saying. Note first that while freedom is an end, terror is a means. So to call a combatant a…

  • Excellent Advice on Non-Violence from Simone Weil

    Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace, tr. Emma Craufurd, Routledge 1995, p. 77, emphasis added. Non-violence is no good unless it is effective. Hence the young man's question to Ghandi about his sister. The answer should have been: use force unless you are such that you can defend her with as much chance of success without…

  • The Post-Modern Protocols of War: Victor Davis Hanson on the Gaza Rules

    Required reading from the pen of Victor Davis Hanson.  Since I cannot do better than him, I will simply provide excerpts of five key points he makes.  Be sure and read the whole piece.  Here are Hanson's Gaza rules in his words but with material omitted: First is the now-familiar Middle East doctrine of proportionality. Legitimate…

  • Weakness Does Not Justify

    Might does not make right, but neither does impotence or relative weakness. That weakness does not justify strikes me as an important principle, but I have never seen it articulated. The power I have to kill you does not morally justify my killing you. In a slogan: Ability does not imply permissibility.  My ability to kill, rape,…