Relation to others· Power and justiceCommon view
Just war
Axis: Violence — Can violence be legitimate?
Violence is an evil, but sometimes a necessary one, to prevent a greater evil: defending the innocent, repelling aggression. It can only ever be the exception, hedged in by strict conditions: just cause, legitimate authority, last resort, proportionate means, protection of non-combatants.
Philosophers 1
Thomas Aquinasexplicit
The Summa systematizes just war under three conditions: the authority of the sovereign (no private person may declare war), a just cause (punishing a fault, repelling injustice), and a rightful intention (aiming at the good and at peace, not vengeance or greed). Force is not evil in itself: it is an instrument of justice when these conditions are met, like the sword entrusted to public power.
Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 40 · Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 64, a. 7 (self-defense, double effect)
Characters 1
Show inferred positions (1)
Odysseusinferable
Violence, in Odysseus, always claims to be commanded by an end and legitimated by a wrong: the wooden horse wins a war he holds to be just; his return confronts suitors who have violated , squandered his goods and courted his wife. He does not exalt force for its own sake, in the manner of a : he uses it as an instrument, when cunning no longer suffices, in the service of a right he judges trampled. Yet the pitiless severity of his vengeance exceeds the measure of a mere right restored, and the poem lets the difficulty of a justice that tips into violence come to the surface.
Odyssey, VIII (the wooden horse) · Odyssey, XXII (the final confrontation with the suitors)