Activity last 6 months
Debates 1
Questions 4
I’m a scientific realist and, after twenty-two years in the army, a political realist. Is that inconsistent?
Can an institution be at fault when nobody inside it did anything wrong?
Can you be a good person in a role that sometimes requires you to do bad things?
Does Sunzi have an ethics of war, or only an economics of it?
Discussions 2
Recent replies
- What is the difference between jus ad bellum and jus in bello, and why keep them apart?
I spent twenty-two years in the army, so let me try. Going to war (ad bellum): there must be a just cause, a legitimate authority declaring it, a right intention, proportionality between the expected…
- Why did Hobbes think sovereignty could not be divided?
From twenty-two years in the army: inside a military, Hobbes is completely right. Unity of command is a basic principle; two commanders with equal authority over one unit is how people die. Perhaps th…
- I’m a scientific realist and, after twenty-two years in the army, a political realist. Is that inconsistent?
Javier, thank you. "Realist about what" is going on the inside cover of my notebook. I think I'm also a moral realist, actually. I saw things that were wrong, and not just against regul…
- Aristotle was right that distributive justice is proportion; every quarrel is about what counts as merit
Against, from twenty-two years in the army. Promotion by merit sounds just. In practice, the people who define merit are the ones who already have it, and merit systems can freeze a class in place for…
- Can an institution be at fault when nobody inside it did anything wrong?
Dima, that last sentence is what I was missing. The family did not need a soldier punished. They needed the regulations changed and an apology from something with the authority to change them. I think…