Learning by Teaching a Class on Intergenerational Ethics — Lesson 6
October 17, 2009Daniel No Comments »This week’s lesson was on the ethics of war.
Having spent two years in the military, I felt especially excited about leading this week’s discussion.
The closest I’ve been to real combat is live-firing exercises or missions where we used blanks, and my only death-related experience was when one of my men committed suicide.
So I’ll be the first to admit that I have no idea what real war is like! But preparing for the lesson certainly did bring back many memories from my time in the army.
During class, we discussed three main topics:
1) The ethics of asymmetric war
2) The ethics of preventive war
3) The ethics of humanitarian intervention
The thing that struck me about our conversation was that ”it really depends” and “we need to look at it on a case-by-case basis” and “that’s a difficult question to answer” were common responses.
This is in contrast to previous weeks– when we talked about the ethics of business/journalism/free trade– when people were generally firm and unwavering in their opinions.
What is so unique about war that makes us more unsure about what our ethical stance is?
During the discussion, one example I brought up was that in Kosovo, allied planes dropped bombs on targets from higher altitudes than usual, so that the planes would remain out of range of Serb surface-to-air missiles. However, dropping bombs from a higher altitude meant that accuracy was compromised, and more civilian targets were unintentionally hit.
I asked the class, “In such a scenario, do you have a greater responsibility to your troops, or to the civilians of the country you are attacking?”
One of the senior citizens seemed troubled by the question, and replied, “So, Dan, basically you’re asking us if one life is more precious than another?”
I believe that her response sums up what makes war unique: in war, people die.
When you declare that you hold a particular ethical belief about war, you are usually indirectly saying that you believe someone should die. For instance, if you believe that preventive war is ethical, you’re saying it’s okay for innocent people to die for a “just cause.”
Death is something that strikes home, because it’s something that we know we will all experience one day. At some level, we all believe that life is precious and valuable, which explains why we are more reluctant to hold absolute beliefs whose implications lead to people dying– all at the expense of our ideals.
I’m someone who truly believes in ideals, and this Joshua Harris quote is one of my favorite:
“Ideals are like stars. We will not succeed in touching them with our hands, but by following them, like the sea-faring man on the ocean, we will reach our destiny.”
But when it’s a case of ideals vs. lives, it isn’t always that easy to decide which one we value more?
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