Beyond Just War A Virtue Ethics Approach [Paperback]

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?'Foreword; C.Card Preface Introduction: The State of Ethics of War The Moral Problem of War Just War Reconsidered From Rights to Virtues War as an Evil The Philosophy of Co-Existence Theoretical Implications and Challenges Practical Implications and Challenges Is War Ever Justified? Bibliography Index

'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

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.