Abstract

This paper describes a course on war and morality that involves a service-learning dimension. Motivated by the hypothetical imperative that if political philosophers have any special responsibility in a democratic society, then it is to acquaint citizens with political violence, the paper discusses the nature of political responsibility and political violence, the purpose of including a service requirement in a course on war and morality, and describes the content of just such a course. While reporting that service-learning students did not seem to leave the course with a clearer understanding of the relationship between war and other varieties of political violence, they appeared to acquire a clearer understanding of the effects of the violence of war, thereby preparing them to make the former connection in the future.