Most people believe that killing someone, while generally morally wrong, can in some cases be a permissible act. Most people similarly believe that war, while awful, can be justified. Bradley Jay Strawser here addresses both subjects as equal parts in a larger meditation on the ethics of harm and moral responsibility-whether in war collectively or in individual self-defense-and whatever it is that lies in between. Strawser sets out by examining the moral justification for individual defensive killing and then tests its application to collective war as a natural outgrowth of the former. In seeking sincere answers to these morally vexing questions, Strawser offers a novel theory of liability attribution based upon evidence-relative norms, gives a robust defense of so-called 'revisionist' just war theory, and charts a neo-liberal basis for just war theory grounded on the value of individual autonomy.

Bradley Jay Strawser is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. Previously he has held positions at Oxford University's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC), The Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership in Annapolis, MD, the University of Connecticut, and the US Air Force Academy. His most recent books are Outsourcing Duty: The Moral Exploitation of the American Soldier (OUP) and Who Should Die? The Ethics of Killing in War (OUP).

• Contents


• Acknowledgements


• Introduction


• Outline


• Chapter 1: Permissible Defensive Harm and Liability


• Chapter 2: The Evidence-Relative View of Liability Attribution


• Chapter 3: The Evidence-Relative View and Intricate Symmetries


• Chapter 4: A Defense of Revisionist Just War Theory


• Chapter 5: A New Proposal for Liability in War


• Chapter 6: The Puzzle of Benevolent Aggression


• Chapter 7: Towards a New Liberal Theory of Just War


• Chapter 8: Conclusion - Answering Calvin


• Appendix A: List of Cases in Order of Appearance


• Bibliography