...‘There are no just causes for war’ Many argue that there are just reasons for going to war however others state that there are no just reason at all, some reasons to go to war can be fighting for human rights or defending your religion however these can be overseen due to the amount of innocent people who die during war. A just reason for war may be to restore or protect human rights. Many people will claim or demand for better human rights and will want to oppose anyone who will go against them, this is a just reason for war as people are standing together and uniting as one to get what they want which is a better life. Augustine said that a just cause for going to war was ‘defending from attack’, if human rights were violated citizens may feel attacked and under threat therefore in order to restore peace they will have to go to war as they will see this as the only sensible response. The general rule is that only those people fighting you are legitimate targets of attack. Those who are not fighting should not be attacked as this would violate their human rights. Another just cause for going to war is self-defence; the clearest just cause is acting against an aggressor, for example in an invasion, many people are patriotic and would rather die instead of giving up their country to invaders therefore will start a war as a sense of self defence. Augustine said that a just cause for war was ‘recapturing things taken’; this view can be used here as invaders would be trying to...
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...(i)Examine the view that it may be possible to justify involvement in war on some occasions. The Just war theory deals with the justification of how and why wars are fought. The justification can be theoretical. The theoretical aspect is concerned with justifying war ethically. The role of ethics is used to examine whether war is justified and if so can the aspects be changed. The just war tradition also considers the thoughts of various philosophers through the ages and examine their philosophical visions of war’s ethical limits and whether their thoughts have contributed to the justification of war. The just war theory was firstly developed by Saint Augustine of Hippo. Looking back at the Bible he realised that although older generations sided with the more peaceful aspects of the Bible (New Testament) the aspects which included violence (Old Testament) could not be ignored. In Mathew 5 it Jesus said “blessed are the peacemakers” however he did not oppose those who crucified him. This links to how war can be justified because Jesus Gods only son did not punish those who purposely killed him without reason. So to punish those with to an extent have a valid reason could be seen as hypocritical. Augustine believed that justified wars were commanded by God in the bible and split his theory into two parts they are; jus ad bellum-just reasons for going to war, and jus in bello-just practice in war. This was then further developed by Aquinas. Jus ad bellum contains seven key points...
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...Vera Brittain Experiences with World War I Unit 5 Discussion Board By India Patterson AIU Online Born in 1893 to a modest upper class family in a small English town, was a rebellious, strong minded, and passionate young woman name Vera Brittain. Early in life Vera knew that she wanted her independence and that she would settle for nothing until she obtained it. Vera felt that being a woman, she was at a disadvantage. She was determined to have some of the same freedoms that men had at that time. So, in search of her independence, she dreamed to one day get a higher education and obtain a career that gave her recognition for being the individual that desired to become. Continuing her quest in life Vera was given an opportunity to study at Somerville Oxford College that made her first dream come true. While studying there in her first term, World War I began. It changed her life. Vera found it hard to understand the destruction that it caused, but she was intrigued by the manly heroic persona that being a soldier had. So she encouraged her brother and husband to enlist and once again felt the despair of not being able to take part of something that was only for men. So full of wartime emotions and being deceived by what she thought was patriotism; she began to write. She wrote her first book telling the story of how she trained to be an auxiliary nurse, and later became an Army Nurse...
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...Catholicism and Hinduism: Stands on Gender, Sexuality and Violence 1. Introduction This essay aims to compare and contrast specific aspects of Catholicism and Hinduism, more specifically their stands on gender, sexuality and violence. Catholicism and Hinduism are two of the world’s greatest religions; the former originated in the west and spread across the world whereas the latter is followed primarily in the Indian subcontinent and to some extent in the Southeast Asian states. Catholicism and Hinduism are essentially different in their approach towards god and religion; Catholicism believing that there is one deity, and Hinduism on the contrary recognizes the existence of many. Two essential points of Christianity, particularly sin and salvation, aren’t present in Hinduism. The two religions nevertheless have several points of similarity. Hindus worship a number of gods and Catholics worship several saints; both of them make use of the burning of candles and incense before the statues for purposes of worship. Both religions make use of images, icons, music and rituals. Catholics chant prayers, whilst Hindus chant mantras; both of them have tremendously wealthy temples, full of statues and golden artefacts and make use of priesthoods that intermediate between humans and gods. Such similarities and dissimilarities notwithstanding, these two religions have distinct and deeply entrenched religious ethos and epistemologies that govern their practice and the attitudes, approaches...
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...SAINTS should always be judged guilty until they are proved innocent, but the tests that have to be applied to them are not, of course, the same in all cases. In Gandhi's case the questions on feels inclined to ask are: to what extent was Gandhi moved by vanity - by the consciousness of himself as a humble, naked old man, sitting on a praying mat and shaking empires by sheer spiritual power - and to what extent did he compromise his own principles by entering politics, which of their nature are inseparable from coercion and fraud? To give a definite answer one would have to study Gandhi's acts and writings in immense detail, for his whole life was a sort of pilgrimage in which every act was significant. But this partial autobiography, which ends in the nineteen-twenties, is strong evidence in his favor, all the more because it covers what he would have called the unregenerate part of his life and reminds one that inside the saint, or near-saint, there was a very shrewd, able person who could, if he had chosen, have been a brilliant success as a lawyer, an administrator or perhaps even a businessman. At about the time when the autobiography first appeared I remember reading its opening chapters in the ill-printed pages of some Indian newspaper. They made a good impression on me, which Gandhi himself at that time did not. The things that one associated with him - home-spun cloth, "soul forces" and vegetarianism - were unappealing, and his medievalist program was obviously not viable...
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...TERRORISM, WAR, PEACE AND HUMAN RIGHTS FACULTY GUIDEBAC 445 FONTBONNE UNIVERSITY OPTIONS BACHELOR OF ARTS IN CONTEMPORARY STUDIES COURSE DESCRIPTION This course will explore ethical, theoretical, and practical questions relating to terrorism, the engagement of war, cultural and ethnic conflicts. This course will explore why we wage war, the development of terrorism and its impact on societies, society’s quest for peace and the methods attempted to achieve peace. This course will also explore the concept of human rights and how terrorism and war impact these rights. © Copyright Fontbonne University, St. Louis, MO, January 2007. COURSE OVERVIEW TOPICS • Historic and philosophical positions on war • Contemporary moral foundations on war • Human rights • Terrorism • Humanitarian intervention and preemptive war • Religious positions on war • Toward a theory of just peace COURSE OVERVIEW INTRODUCTORY NOTES TO FACULTY The subjects of war, peace, terrorism and human rights are daily fare in the media. While people form strong opinions on these matters and tend to regard them as right or wrong, many do not have the skills to analyze and clearly articulate a rationale for their positions. The purpose of this course is thus twofold: to equip students with the ethical theories needed to make a judgment...
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...Critique of Nonviolent Politics From Mahatma Gandhi to the Anti-Nuclear Movement by Howard Ryan (howard@netwood.net) Preface 2 Part I 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Problems of Nonviolent Theory Nonviolent Philosophy 6 Moral View: Violence Itself Is Wrong 9 Practical View: Violence Begets Violence 13 Nonviolent Theory of Power 21 Voluntary Suffering 24 Common Nonviolent Arguments 34 A Class Perspective 49 Part II 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Gandhi: A Critical History Father of Nonviolence 56 Satyagraha in South Africa 59 Textile Strike 66 Noncooperation Movement 1919-22 70 Religious Conflicts 80 Salt Satyagraha 87 Congress Ministries 97 The War Years 101 Independence and Bloodshed 111 Part III 17 18 19 20 Nonviolence in the Anti-Nuclear Movement Nonviolent Direct Action 120 Consensus Decision Making 123 Open, Friendly, and Respectful 136 Civil Disobedience 142 Epilogue 151 Notes 154 ©2002 by Howard Ryan. All rights reserved. Readers have my permission to use and distribute for non-profit and educational purposes. Critique of Nonviolent Politics 2 Preface (2002) Critique of Nonviolent Politics may be the only comprehensive critique of nonviolent theory that has been written. I wrote it between 1980 and 1984, while living in Berkeley, California. Since 1977, I had been active in the movement against nuclear power and weapons which, in California, focused its protests at the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Plant near San Luis Obispo, and at the University of California's Lawrence Livermore Labs where...
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...Translate the following text into Ukrainian. Pay attention to the ways of rendering personal names at the end of the text. MANIFESTO AGAINST CONSCRIPTION AND THE MILITARY SYSTEM In the name of humanity, for the sake of all civilians threatened by war crimes, especially women and children, and for the benefit of Mother Nature suffering from war preparations and warfare, We, the undersigned, plea for the universal abolition of conscription as one major and decisive step towards complete disarmament. We remember the message of 20th century-humanists: "It is our belief that conscript armies, with their large corps of professional officers, are a grave menace to peace. Conscription involves the degradation of human personality, and the destruction of liberty. Barrack life, military drill, blind obedience to commands, however unjust and foolish they may be, and deliberate training for slaughter undermine respect for the individual, for democracy and human life. It is debasing human dignity to force men to give up their life, or to inflict death against their will, or without conviction as to the justice of their action. The State which thinks itself entitled to force its citizens to go to war will never pay proper regard to the value and happiness of their lives in peace. Moreover, by conscription the militarist spirit of aggressiveness is implanted in the whole male population at the most impressionable age. By training for war men come to consider war as unavoidable...
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...Before we actually start, id like you to take a look at us today, this hour, this minute, this very second. Are we at peace with ourselves or with the individual next to us?Yes. So are we a peaceful species at heart? Yes. Don't mention the Egypt crisis please, thats a different issue and its just a minor percentage of the worlds' population. Yes throughout out history we have fought like maniacs, but are we peaceful deep inside? I think we could be, its just environmental factors or lack of knowledge in my view, like religion, race, territory, wealth and of course the natural factors like envy and jealousy, etc. We need people who can sit still and be able to smile, who can walk peacefully. We need people like that in order to save us. You are that person. I am that person. We are the peace the world needs. We are angels experiencing humanity. You wouldn't know it by current world events, but humans actually evolved to be peaceful, cooperative and social animals. Early man was not an aggressive killer nor fighter, he was a talker. It was just the natural instinct for survival. If they didn't hunt they would end up being cannibals and that's definitely not peaceful. Our intelligence, cooperation and many other features we have as modern humans developed from our attempts to out-smart the predator. Although great freedom fighters did use weapons to free life but the explicit idea and technique of non-violence evolved by Gandhiji was miraculous. Non-violence had been the...
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...Just and Unjust Wars Do people ever fight unjust wars? I believe people do fight unjust wars. An unjust war is when one group tries to take over another group. This can be because of power, religious beliefs, economic gain, etc. The online definition I found for unjust war is “any conflict in which one party will attempt to enforce dominance on a different party. This may be carried out for a number of reasons like power, economic gain, religious differences and ethnic cleansing. Theory of unjust war is contrasted with just war theory” (ask.com). An unjust war is fought with the wrong intentions. If a group hasn’t tried all non-violent options to solve their issue, then I feel that the war they engage in is unjust. A good example of an unjust war is the war that is going on in Iraq. This war has been going on for over eleven years now. During this time span there have been no real answers to what we have accomplished, but yet our soldiers are still dying along with Iraqi civilians. In addition to the lives lost, our economy is horrible with a big impact being from oil and gas prices. Even though immense fighting still exists, our troops need to start leaving Iraq. How long must we continue to fight a war that seems to be leading us nowhere? Also, ever since the beginning of the human race, there has been war. One group feels that they can take over another group and not only take over their land, but also use their resources and people for their own profit...
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...05/13/ 2013 If I had a dream…. There would not only be peace in the Middle East, but around the world as well. America would no longer have to battle terrorist cells and other such evils in or outside of America. It would be like every day on the news we would hear only about the positive, and not news we're hearing how rampant violence is in our communities, both here in America and around the world. There is so much going on for a better world all around us that the mainstream media never shares with us. What actions can we take as a nation to make this dream come true? We can create harmonious relationships with our family, friends, coworkers and community members. We all can learn how to forgive people who have harmed you in the past. Everyone can learn how to forgive yourself for harm you have inflicted on others. Also we can heal painful wounds within you, family, community and nation. We can work on always being honest. We all can help protect the earth and teach peace to children. We can teach non-violence by example. We all can be leaders in the struggle for human decency. We all can respect the dignity of each person. We can express your views on peace to government officials. We can change a potential enemy into a friend. Everyone can help someone and be more loving and fair. Everyone can commit themselves to nonviolence, support nonviolent solutions to global issues. Everyone can speak out for a nuclear-free world. What actions can...
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...I came across with a quote on changing the world. "This is the beginning of a new day. You have been given this day to use as you will. You can waste it or use it for good. What you do today is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it. When tomorrow comes, this day will be gone forever; in its place is something that you have left behind... let it be something good." - Anonymous After reading, I was inspired and we can ask ourselves “What we are going to do today?” Our answer, which is usually 'change the world', might seem a little over-ambitious to some of us. Maybe because some of our heroes and great idealists had ultimately failed to change the world. I am referring to Mahatma Gandhi who had brought down the oppressive British Empire with non-violent protest, Martin-Luther King who had helped change the fortunes of millions of African Americans and our very own, Ninoy Aquino who relentlessly exposed and revealed all the graft and corruption happening behind the curtains of politics. His death sparked a series of revolutions against the administration leading to the EDSA Revolution of 1986. They had fairly changed the world with their messages of love, peace and non-resistance but the evil still exists. Actually, 'change the world' means 'change the entire world forever so there are no more problems at all anywhere'. But in my mind, even the smallest change is a change worth making. If I can raise the spirits of just one person for a few hours, I...
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...The concept of conflict transformation gained support with the evolution of conceptualization of human security by the international community. Due to the continuous recurrence of conflicts, conflict transformation has proved to be an ideal model in peace studies as it works in conjunction with conflict management, conflict resolution, disarmament and also truth and reconciliation. Hence it has been supported by various scholars such as Gaultang and Krisberg.Thus the essay will look in detail in relation to why conflict resolution is becoming more popular with reference to case studies. Conflict transformation has been defined by as the use of the holistic and multi faceted approach to managing violent conflict in all its phases. Thus the term signifies an ongoing process of change in relations, behavior, attitudes, and structures from negative to positive (Lederach 1995). Conflict transformation views peace as centered and rooted in the quality of relationships, It moves beyond the episodic expression of the conflict and focuses on the relational and historical patterns in which the conflict is rooted. Harrington and Merry (1988) advocate that societies are transformed when fundamental social and political changes are made to make correct inequalities and injustices and to provide all groups with fundamental human needs. Thus they regard conflict transformation as the restructuring of social institutions and structures so that people can realise their potential. Conflict transformation...
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...Comparative Essay Into the Wild Leo Tolstoy is considered to be one of the greatest novelists of all time, influencing the world of the arts as well as the way we analyze the philosophies of human beings. Throughout the past century, he has influenced millions of people with his meaningful and powerful novels and essays about the way we appreciate love and how we live our lives. When reading the novel Into the Wild, it becomes clear that the artist’s philosophies have had leverage on Christopher McCandless and the theories he applies to his chosen lifestyle. When analyzing McCandless’ behavior, Tolstoy’s importance becomes evident through the reasons the protagonist has when leaving the society he was a part of in terms of luxury, human contact with the wilderness, and the importance of conscience. These ideals can be seen specifically represented in one of Tolstoy’s essays titled On Labor and Luxury, which forms part of a compilation of papers published in the book What to do? in 1887. Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy opens his argumentative piece by describing his reasons to criticize society, which presents McCandless’ ideals on escaping the community he was a part of. Tolstoy describes “the wretchedness of our life” by stating that “If the people of our sphere, of our caste, will only take a serious look at themselves, then young persons, who are in search of personnel happiness, will stand aghast at the ever-increasing wretchedness of their life, which is plainly leading them...
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...Dears, John. “What Martin Luther King Jr. can teach us about nonviolence” National Catholic Reporter.( 2012): Ncronline. Web. Nov 2015. In John Dears “What Martin Luther King Jr. can teach us about nonviolence” article he claims “[…] nonviolent resistance [is…] a strategy of hope, which can help us today in the thousands of [social change] movements around the world, including the […] ongoing Arab Spring movements.” Dears gives six points of nonviolence that Doctor King wrote about in, Stride Toward Freedom (published by Harper and Row) Opening Dear states, “Nonviolence is not for the cowardly, the weak, the passive, the apathetic or the fearful.” Dear is insisting that participating in nonviolent acts is not for the spineless but for the brave and courageous. Furthermore, the point of the practice is to change the ideas of another peacefully not aggressively or forcefully. Additionally, Dr. King states, "Nonviolence does not seek to […] humiliate [your] opponent but to win friendship and understanding." What Dr. King really means is that nonviolence is a way to show a different perspective without demeaning another human. In addition to the other principles, boycotts and peaceful protest are not the end solution but the launch of the solution. Another goal of nonviolence is to destroy evil, not people. King wanted to change the systems that were put in place because you cannot go after the people that made those systems violently and expect a hopeful outcome. Nonviolence includes...
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