Soldiers, Self-Defense, and Killing in War
| dc.contributor.author | Kilner, Peter | en |
| dc.contributor.committeechair | Miller, Harlan B. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Croskery, Patrick T. | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Christman, John P. | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Philosophy | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-03-14T20:51:28Z | en |
| dc.date.adate | 1998-05-20 | en |
| dc.date.available | 2014-03-14T20:51:28Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 1998-05-07 | en |
| dc.date.rdate | 1998-05-20 | en |
| dc.date.sdate | 1998-05-07 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Just-Warists and War-Pacifists disagree on whether soldiers are morally justified in killing each other in wartime combat. Many of their respective arguments, and their contradictory conclusions, are based upon principles of self-defense. In this thesis, I examine the role that principles of self-defense play in the arguments surrounding the moral justification of killing in combat. I do so by critiquing both a Just-Warist argument that relies on self-defense (constructed from the works of Michael Walzer and Judith Jarvis Thomson) and a War-Pacifist argument (developed by Richard Norman) that condemns killing in combat based on the moral requirements of self-defense. I demonstrate that both arguments fail due to their mistaken assumptions that soldiers are not morally responsible for their actions. I conclude by arguing that--once soldiers are recognized as morally responsible agents--killing in combat can be morally justified by principles of self-defense. | en |
| dc.description.degree | Master of Arts | en |
| dc.identifier.other | etd-41998-18346 | en |
| dc.identifier.sourceurl | http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-41998-18346/ | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/10919/36685 | en |
| dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
| dc.relation.haspart | etd.PDF | en |
| dc.relation.haspart | PKVITA.PDF | en |
| dc.rights | In Copyright | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | pacifism | en |
| dc.subject | just war | en |
| dc.subject | military ethics | en |
| dc.subject | killing | en |
| dc.title | Soldiers, Self-Defense, and Killing in War | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Philosophy | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
| thesis.degree.level | masters | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts | en |