pt. 1. 1869-1893.--pt. 2. 1894-1900.--pt. 3. 1901-1908.

At this writing, late in 2023 and on the eve of 2024, we are approaching the seventy-fifth anniversary of George Orwell’s 1984 and its many quotable passages such as “WAR IS PEACE.” Like 1949, the...

In this episode we are told ‘Oooo Heaven is a place on earth’, but in fact Oooo no it isn't. San Junipero, a virtual beach resort where the dead and dying can upload their minds, is much closer to the underworld of the ancient Greeks than the Christian Heaven. But it is not merely the people who are shades of themselves, in San Junipero our values will also fade as they are constituted in part by our human limitations. In this (...) town the residents experience no danger and can take no risks, therefore can make no real sacrifices for one another. With our natural limits lifted our relationships would lose their importance, making the fate of the two protagonists seem much darker. (shrink)

Volume 22, Issue 3-4, November - December 2023.

Volume 22, Issue 3-4, November - December 2023.

Being on the side of the angels is tougher in some historical moments than others. Military ethicists are living through one such era now and taking our share of elbows every day. Consider how the...

Given the portion of his life spent at military schools, it is striking that Ender and his peers apparently never study military ethics. The ethical lessons Ender and his peers might have learned are so obviously relevant to operations against the buggers that you cannot help but ask how the I.F.'s leadership could have failed to teach military ethics at all. This chapter presents some highlights of Western thinking on the ethics of war and analyzes Ender's education and actions in (...) light of those moral traditions. Ender's Game teaches powerful lessons for students of just war theory and the just war tradition because it asks questions that matter to everyone, from national decision‐makers all the way down to individual soldiers. Genocide and xenocide are extreme in their quantity of killing, but not necessarily in their moral magnitude. (shrink)

Do just war principles allow resort to war, or require it? For those who feel the force of the question, the ongoing war in Ukraine has provided an urgent case study.A video shot in late February 2...

This dissertation is primarily concerned with the subjects of disagreement, argument, and the methodology of philosophy. The first chapter sets out and attempts to answer the question of what the connection between disagreement and disputing is. The second chapter is primarily a investigation into the nature of verbal disputes. The answer the chapter puts forward is that there is a justificatory relation between disagreeing and disputing, so that, for example, if two parties do not disagree in the right way, then (...) they should not dispute. In the second chapter I will look at a few theories of verbal disputes, and I will discuss some of the features such a theory should have. I go on to explicitly endorse a version of David Chalmers's theory of verbal disputes, and defend it from some potential objections. The third chapter is a defence of the method of conceptual analysis in philosophy. I introduce some potential objections to the Canberra plan style of conceptual analysis, and show how a different conception of conceptual analyses could get over these problems. The conception of conceptual analysis I argue for is heavily inspired by Rudolf Carnap's system of explication. The main way Carnapian explication would differ from the Canberra plan style of conceptual analysis is in the way that it would allow one to move further away from the original concept in analysing it, by balancing closeness to the original concept against other specific criteria. (shrink)

“Fear and I were born twins together,” said Hobbes, alluding to the Spanish armada-borne scare of 1588. The year 2001 birthed a similarly synergistic pair, the attacks of 9/11 and this journal, Jou...

Volume 18, Issue 4, December 2019, Page 267-268.

A few years ago, this page of the Journal of Military Ethics offered Martin Cook’s and Henrik Syse’s penetrating essay about the nature of military ethics. That piece continues...

In Rapture some mad shit happens: there are Plasmids that allow players to fire bees out of their hands, generate electricity bolts, set enemies on fire, pick stuff up using telekinetic powers, and much more. One theory is that physical things are those that can be completely described by the vocabulary of the best possible theory of physics. Physicalism would thus be the view that this theory of physics would completely specify all the fundamental categories, all the ingredients we need (...) to make the world. Another theory is that the physical properties are the ones needed to account for the objects we accept as physical; for example, Andrew Ryan's putter. The physicalist's claim would be that these properties are the only ones we need to account for the rest of the world. (shrink)

Volume 18, Issue 2, July 2019, Page 73-74.

Volume 17, Issue 4, December 2018, Page 240-242.

Polish roles in the First World War take center stage in a special section of this issue of JME. Although not a nation on maps of the time, many Poles considered themselves united as a people even...

Report on Charles Sanders Peirce and his contributions to a newspaper, includes yearly breakdowns of his contributions, analysis of his writings, his contributions to philosophy, and more.