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Justifying the Obligation to Die
War, Ethics, and Political Obligation with Illustrations from Zionism
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Publisher:
2009
Summary
One of the state's key features is its ability to oblige its citizens to risk their lives on its behalf by being sent into war. However, what is it about the state (or its equivalent) that makes this obligation justifiable? Justifying the Obligation to Die is the first monograph to explore systematically how this obligation has been justified. Using key texts from political philosophy and just war theory, it provides a critical survey of how this obligation has been justified and, using illustrations from Zionist thought and practice, demonstrates how the various arguments for the obligation have functioned. The obligation to risk one's life for the state is often presumed by theorists and practitioners who take the state for granted, but for the Zionists, a people without a state but in search of one and who have little history of state-based political thought, it became necessary to explain this obligation. As such, this book examines Zionism as a Jewish political theory, reading it alongside the tradition of Western political thought, and critiques how Zionist thought and practice sought to justify this obligation to risk one's life in war_what Michael Walzer termed 'the obligation to die.' Finally, turning to the political thought of Hannah Arendt, the author suggests how the obligation could become justifiable, although never entirely justified. For the obligation to become at all justifiable, the type of politics that the state enables must respect human diversity and individuality and restrict violence so that violence is not a continuation of politics.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2009
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-2973-9
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-2975-3
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
272
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access
Chapter 1. Just War and Obligation No access Pages 1 - 12
Chapter 2. The Jewish Question and Zionism No access Pages 13 - 30
Chapter 3. Aristotle, War, the Good Life, and Zionism No access Pages 31 - 56
Chapter 4. For the State No access Pages 57 - 96
Chapter 5. Salvation No access Pages 97 - 134
Chapter 6. Wishful Thinking: Consent, Contract, and the Obligation to Die No access Pages 135 - 182
Chapter 7. Justifying the Obligation to Die No access Pages 183 - 232
Conclusion: The Obligation to Die No access Pages 233 - 248
