About this ebook
Insisting that peaceful resolution of conflicts is not a utopian goal, this book is an intervention into the violent politics of a changing global order.
Jeff Noonan shifts the focus away from the content of ideologies to examine the way in which different justifications of war always employ the same distribution of values. Moral economies of war reduce human life to an instrumental value of some higher political goal: national security, national liberation, justice for historical wrongs suffered, the revolutionary overthrow of all conditions that oppress humanity.
The book argues that the moral economy of war is both materially irrational and morally incoherent: every instance argues that the lives of some must be sacrificed for the sake of the lives of others. Moral economies of war thus assume that life is of ultimate value (otherwise, why fight) but they subordinate this value to some non-living system goal. Moral economies of peace, by contrast, start with life as the ultimate value and interpret all other political values in light of it. National security, justice, or radical social changes are political values only to the extent that they demonstrably improve life conditions for each and all. Far from a utopian moralistic plea, the material rationality, moral coherence, and realistic possibility of organizing domestic and international politics in the moral economy is a function of treating history as a learning process.
Jeff Noonan shifts the focus away from the content of ideologies to examine the way in which different justifications of war always employ the same distribution of values. Moral economies of war reduce human life to an instrumental value of some higher political goal: national security, national liberation, justice for historical wrongs suffered, the revolutionary overthrow of all conditions that oppress humanity.
The book argues that the moral economy of war is both materially irrational and morally incoherent: every instance argues that the lives of some must be sacrificed for the sake of the lives of others. Moral economies of war thus assume that life is of ultimate value (otherwise, why fight) but they subordinate this value to some non-living system goal. Moral economies of peace, by contrast, start with life as the ultimate value and interpret all other political values in light of it. National security, justice, or radical social changes are political values only to the extent that they demonstrably improve life conditions for each and all. Far from a utopian moralistic plea, the material rationality, moral coherence, and realistic possibility of organizing domestic and international politics in the moral economy is a function of treating history as a learning process.
Insisting that peaceful resolution of conflicts is not a utopian goal, this book is an intervention into the violent politics of a changing global order.
Jeff Noonan shifts the focus away from the content of ideologies to examine the way in which different justifications of war always employ the...
Discover more
About the author
Jeff Noonan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Windsor, Canada. He is the author of Critical Humanism and the Politics of Difference (2003), Democratic Society and Human Needs (2006); Materialist Ethics and Life-Value (2012); Embodiment and the Meaning of Life (2018), The Troubles With Democracy (Rowman & Littlefield International 2019), and Embodied Humanism: Toward Sensuousness and Solidarity (Lexington Books 2022).
Jeff Noonan is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Windsor, Canada. He is the author of Critical Humanism and the Politics of Difference (2003), Democratic Society and Human Needs (2006); Materialist Ethics and Life-Value (2012); Embodiment and the Meaning of Life (2018), The Troubles Wi...
Rate this ebook
Tell us what you think.
Reading information
Smartphones and tablets
Install the Google Play Books app for Android and iPad/iPhone. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are.
Laptops and computers
You can listen to audiobooks purchased on Google Play using your computer's web browser.
eReaders and other devices
To read on e-ink devices like Kobo eReaders, you'll need to download a file and transfer it to your device. Follow the detailed Help Center instructions to transfer the files to supported eReaders.
