Some of our most fundamental moral rules are violated by the practices of torture and war. If one examines the concrete forms these practices take, can the exceptions to the rules necessary to either torture or war be justified? Fighting Hurt brings together key essays by Henry Shue on the issue of torture, and relatedly, the moral challenges surrounding the initiation and conduct of war, and features a new introduction outlining the argument of the essays, putting them into context, and describing how and in what ways his position has modified over time. The first six chapters marshal arguments that have been refined over 35 years for the conclusion that torture can never be justified in any actual circumstances whatsoever. The practice of torture has nothing significant in common with the ticking bomb scenario often used in its defence, and weak U.S. statutes have loop-holes for psychological torture of the kind now favoured by CIA in the 'war against terrorism'. The other sixteen chapters maintain that for as long as wars are in fact fought, it is morally urgent to limit specific destructive practices that cannot be prohibited. Two possible exceptions to the UN Charter's prohibition on all but defensive wars, humanitarian military intervention and preventive war to eliminate WMD, are evaluated; and one possible exception to the principle of discrimination, Michael Walzer's 'supreme emergency', is sharply criticized. Two other fundamental issues about the rules for the conduct of war receive extensive controversial treatment. The first is the rules to limit the bombing of dual-use infrastructure, with a focus on alternative interpretations of the principle of proportionality that limits 'collateral damage'. The second is the moral status of the laws of war as embodied in International Humanitarian Law. It is argued that the current philosophical critique of IHL by Jeff McMahan focused on individual moral liability to attack is an intellectual dead-end and that the morally best rules are international laws that are the same for all fighters. Examining real cases, including U.S. bombing of Iraq in 1991, the Clinton Administration decision not to intervene in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, NATO bombing of Serbia in 1999, and CIA torture after 9/11 and its alternatives, this book is highly accessible to general readers who are interested in the ethical status of American political life, especially foreign policy.
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This volume brings together key work by the leading political philosopher Henry Shue on the issue of torture, and the moral challenges surrounding the initiation and conduct of war.
I. MAKING EXCEPTIONS?; TORTURE; INTERVENTION; PREEMPTION; 'SUPREME EMERGENCY'; II. MAKING THE RULES; BOMBING, DISCRIMINATION, AND PROPORTIONALITY; GUIDING PRINCIPLES; LAW AND MORALITY OF WAR
Features much-cited classics and the most recent work of Henry Shue Features a new Introduction, outlining the the argument of the pieces and their context, and the development of his arguments over time Combines political and moral considerations
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Henry Shue is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Internation Studies, University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow Emeritus, Merton College, Oxford. He was a founding member of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland in 1976 and later a formative teacher of International Normative Theory. His publications include Climate Justice (OUP, 2014), Basic Rights (Princeton; 2nd ed., 1996), and co-edited Just and Unjust Warriors with David Rodin (OUP, 2008), and The American Way of Bombing with Matthew Evangelista (Cornell University Press, 2014).
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Features much-cited classics and the most recent work of Henry Shue Features a new Introduction, outlining the the argument of the pieces and their context, and the development of his arguments over time Combines political and moral considerations
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9780198767626
Publisert
2016
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Vekt
898 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
162 mm
Dybde
34 mm
Aldersnivå
UU, UP, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
524

Forfatter

Biographical note

Henry Shue is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Internation Studies, University of Oxford, and Senior Research Fellow Emeritus, Merton College, Oxford. He was a founding member of the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the University of Maryland in 1976 and later a formative teacher of International Normative Theory. His publications include Climate Justice (OUP, 2014), Basic Rights (Princeton; 2nd ed., 1996), and co-edited Just and Unjust Warriors with David Rodin (OUP, 2008), and The American Way of Bombing with Matthew Evangelista (Cornell University Press, 2014).