Eternal Peace – Eternal War

Abstract

This lecture tries to show how ancient Chinese philosophy can help us to respond in a more peaceful, defensive way to the continual dangers of war and find a practicable way between outright bellicosity on the one hand and all-too-good pacifism on the other hand. The lecture begins with reflections on Immanuel Kant’s idea of eternal peace, followed by Heraclitus’ view on war as the father of things, and finally proceeds to Sun-tzu’s Art of War, that tells us how to defeat the enemy without fighting.