War and Negative Revelation

Michael S. Yandell

doi:10.5771/9781793641939

Summary

From the concrete experience of war, Michael S. Yandell constructs a phenomenology of “negative revelation” in which false or distorted claims of goodness and justice disintegrate, becoming meaningless. Yandell argues that the disintegration of meaning in war is itself a meaningful experience; “revealing” comes to signify the presence of goodness and justice through the profound experience of their absence. The heart of this work adds a layer of complexity or depth to the term “moral injury” as a negative revelation. Yandell emphasizes the context and logic of war itself beyond the actions of individuals, paying specific attention to the U.S. led Global War on Terror. Moral injury as a negative revelation is a disintegration of false normative claims of goodness and justice, as well as a disintegration of one’s sense of self oriented toward those normative claims. This disintegration is prompted by the recognition of life in the midst of war’s diminishment of life.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2022
ISBN-Print: 978-1-7936-4192-2
ISBN-Online: 978-1-7936-4193-9
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 132
Product type: Book Titles

1. Dedication No access
2. Contents No access
3. 1. Notes No access
4. Acknowledgments No access
1. Thesis No access
2. Method No access
3. Chapter Outline No access
4. Notes No access
1. 1. The Assault of Nothingness No access
  2. The Stasis of Nonbeing No access
  3. The Parasitic Nature of Ideology No access
2. 1. Anti-life in the Form of Life No access
3. Notes No access
1. What We Know: Reflecting on Donald Rumsfeld No access
2. 1. Full Spectrum Dominance—Domination through Military Power No access
  2. “American Sovereignty”—Domination through Political Power No access
  3. Good and Evil—Domination through a Pretense of Moral Superiority No access
3. From Ironic to Evil: We Were Never Innocent No access
4. Notes No access
1. 1. Moral Injury and Convention from the Perspective of Clinicians No access
2. 1. Martha Nussbaum on Nomos No access
  2. Personally Experiencing the Convention No access
  3. Just War Theory and the Moral Convention No access
3. Notes No access
1. 1. Practicing Life as a Soldier No access
2. 1. 1. Decency and Hatred No access
    2. What Is Seen and Known No access
    3. “This War is Complete Bullshit . . . ”56 No access
3. The Affirmation of Meaninglessness No access
4. Notes No access
1. Major Concepts No access
2. The Example of Saul/Paul No access
3. The Revelation of the Other No access
4. Turning Point No access
5. Conclusion: Open to Life No access
6. Notes No access
References No access Pages 121 - 126
Index No access Pages 127 - 130
About the Author No access Pages 131 - 132