Filozofska istraživanja, Vol. 36 No. 4, 2016.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/fi36401
About the So-Called Principle of Lesser Evil
Lino Veljak
orcid.org/0000-0003-2887-0668
; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Filozofski fakultet, Ivana Lučića 3, HR–10000 Zagreb
Abstract
Western philosophical tradition is marked by unequivocal domination of monism. Because of that, the principle of lesser evil isn’t exactly among highly regarded philosophical principles, primarily among the those of practical philosophy, or among reflections on ethical activities. Based on pessimistically understood persuasion according to which people often (if not always) have to choose in their actions between two or more decisions, all of them marked by morally unacceptable actions (or, more radically: each of them means some sort of commitment in evildoing), the principle of lesser evil tends to demonstrate itself in the issues of war and violence – in its complete antinomy. The analysis of the concepts of abstract pacifism and justifiable war can point to the dramatics of the implementation of the concept of lesser evil and open some space for a proper rethinking of the different possibilities of the approach to the problem of war and peace.
Keywords
war; justifiable war; violence; peace; evil; pacifism
Hrčak ID:
180130
URI
Publication date:
13.12.2016.
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