Thomas Aquinas on Military Prudence
Journal of Military Ethics 9 (3):262-275 (2010)
Abstract
Virtually all historical treatments of just war recognize the importance of the account given by Thomas Aquinas in Summa theologiae II-II, q. 40, ?De bello?, where he outlines three conditions ? legitimate authority, just cause, and right intention ? for a justifiable use of armed force. It is, however, less well known that within the same section of the work (q. 50, a. 4) Aquinas extended his reflection on just war into a theory of military prudence. By placing generalship under the category of ?prudence?, rather than ?art? or ?science?, he held that military command involves more than a morally neutral skill with victory as its sole aim. Building on the premise that service to the common good constitutes the overarching purpose of the military profession, Aquinas showed how the virtue of prudence provides an inner compass for decision-making amid the uncertainty and confusion of the battlefieldDOI
10.1080/15027570.2010.510866
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Citations of this work
Autonomous Machines, Moral Judgment, and Acting for the Right Reasons.Duncan Purves, Ryan Jenkins & Bradley J. Strawser - 2015 - Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 18 (4):851-872.
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Just war and virtue: revisiting Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.Nico Vorster - 2015 - South African Journal of Philosophy 34 (1):55-68.
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References found in this work
The Ethics of War: Classical and Contemporary Readings.Gregory M. Reichberg, Henrik Syse & Endre Begby (eds.) - 2006 - Blackwell.
Just war and regular war: Competing paradigms.Gregory Reichberg - 2008 - In David Rodin & Henry Shue (eds.), Just and Unjust Warriors: The Moral and Legal Status of Soldiers. Oxford University Press. pp. 193--213.