Week 11: Just War and Terrorism (March 18-22)

Assignment due!

Bring two paper copies of a draft outline of essay 2 to your discussion meeting this week. See instructions for essay 2 (posted at that link when they're ready). You will be discussing your idea for essay 2 with one or two peers in your discussion meeting.

 

Monday, March 18

We are behind, so on this day we will just discuss Soran Reader's article on pacifism that was assigned for last week.

 

Wednesday, March 22

Content warning

The articles below are about moral questions related to terrorism. Given recent terrorist attacks in New Zealand and elsewhere, if this is going to cause significant difficulty for you please let Christina know. We may be able to work out something else (likely further readings on just war theory).

 

Required

Walzer, M. (2006). Terrorism and Just War. Philosophia, 34(1), pp. 3-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-006-9004-1 Links to an external site.

  • This article is available open access, for free, at the link above. 
  • Only pp. 3-9 (sentence ending at the top of p. 10) are required; pp. 10-12 are optional.

Optional

This article was originally required, but in order not to have to rush too much through material I decided to make this one optional. If there is time I may discuss one of her main arguments in the lecture. If you want to use this article in an essay on the final you may do so (but it won't be a required part of any essay question).

Held, V. (2008). Terrorism, rights, and political goals. How Terrorism is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence. Oxford University Press.

  • This book chapter is available on the Library Online Course Reserves page for this course.
  • If you want to read this article, you could focus on:
    • p. 75, starting with "My own view of what terrorism is" to end of p. 77, then
    • pp. 81 (beginning of the "terrorism and rights" section) to the end of the article (p. 90)

 

What to do this week and before next week

  • Bring two copies of your essay 2 draft to your discussion meeting this week, for peer feedback.
  • Read materials for next week (see week 12)
  • If you want, post on the discussion board for Singer to Held.

 

Image credit:  Michael Walzer giving a lecture at the US Naval Academy in 2002 Links to an external site., public domain on Wikimedia Commons.