Justifiable Killing in War? For Taking the Soldier's Stance Seriously in War Ethics

Abstract

The paper builds on a current debate in the philosophy of war, which are rules that contribute to the containment of war and to a system of fair rules in warfare. Both are key issues in the “jus in bello” as a central part of war ethics. Recently, philosophers have questioned a general exculpation of soldiers in that context. Instead of restricting the debate on “justifiable killing” to the “jus ad bellum,” which explores moral restrictions in starting warfare,philosophers examinemoralimplications whensoldiers kill inwar.Even though epistemic limitations and duties of soldiers need to be taken into account, the paper argues for a more detailed exploration of acts of killing in war by soldiers. Just war theory, jus in bello, war ethics, liability, morality of warfare Applied Vienna. She is also head of the research plat-form Nano-Norms-Nature. Her research interests comprise Aristotelian ethics, ethics of nature, political philosophy and war ethics. Recent book publications: Climate Justice and Climate Ethics (ed. Berlin/Boston 2015); Political Philosophy oft he Citizen (Wien/ K ö ln/Weimar 2013); Why Democracy Needs Public Goods (Lanham 2012); Ethical Naturalism after Aristotle (Paderborn 2010).