Who Should Die?: The Ethics of Killing in War

War remains a grim fixture of the human landscape, and because of its tremendous and ongoing impact on the lives of millions of people, has always attracted the attention of careful, rigorous, and empathetic moral philosophers. And while war is synonymous with death and ruin, very few people are willing to surrender to moral nihilism about war--the view that all really is fair. At the center of debates about war remains the most important question that faces us during battle: whom are we allowed to kill?

This volume collects in one place the most influential and groundbreaking philosophical work being done on the question of killing in war, offering a who's who of contemporary scholars debating the foundational ethical questions surrounding liability to harm. In ten essays, it expands upon and provides new and updated analyses that have yet to be captured in a single work. Essays explore questions such as: Are some soldiers more deserving of death than others? Should states allow soldiers to conscientiously object (to opt out of war) on a case-by-case basis? Can a theory of rights best explain when it is permissible to kill in war? When are we allowed to violently resist oppression that is itself nonviolent? Is there anything wrong with targeting people with autonomous weapons?

As a convenient and authoritative collection of such discussions, this volume is uniquely suited for university-level teaching and as a reference for ethicists, policymakers, stakeholders, and any student of the morality of killing in war.


Author: Bradley Jay Strawser
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 11/22/2017
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.01lbs
Size: 9.30h x 6.20w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780190495657

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2018

About the Author

Ryan Jenkins is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy and a Senior Fellow at the Ethics + Emerging Sciences Group at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, CA. He studies normative ethics and applied ethics, especially military ethics and emerging technologies. He has published on autonomous weapons, autonomous vehicles, cyberwarfare and just war theory.

Michael Robillard is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Oxford's Uehiro Center for Practical Ethics, working on the interface of collective responsibility and counter-terrorism. His research focuses on various topics in normative ethics, including exploitation and its relation to present-day military recruitment, war and its relation to future generations, and the ethics of emerging military technologies. Robillard is an Iraq war veteran and former Army Airborne Ranger.

Bradley J. Strawser is an Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Defense Analysis Department at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA and a Research Associate at Oxford University's Institute for Ethics, Law, and Armed Conflict (ELAC). His research focus is primarily ethics and political philosophy, though he has also written on metaphysics, ancient philosophy, and human rights. He edited Killing By Remote Control (Oxford, 2013).