War violence and politics are phenomena that cause human s to suffer, die or have their properties destroyed. Different authors have attempted to write to show how these phenomena can affect human life. It is also evident that they also come with ethical implications. This essay strives to show the ethical argument that Kant, Hannah Arendt and Judith Butler makes in some of their work and the importance of this arguments in the process of building toward a global culture of ethics.
Kant in his work titled Perpetual peace talks about war and its impacts. The author begins by claiming that states are either at war or living in a de facto peace, unstable and precarious. The author also claims that peace makes not law. The intention of the author was to get out the states to their natural state – the state of conflict, permanent war, of the fittest 1 . The main ideology portrayed in this work is war is natural. However, this naturalness does not make war legitimate or just or moral.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
On the authors idea of perpetual peace the article begins by reviewing the articles of perpetual peace between treaties. This treaties are describes who effective peace can be accomplished without ethically inflicting the people. No treaty of peace shall be regarded as valid, if made with the secret reservation of material for a future war 2 . The article describes that if such a case happens then there would be no effective peace but it will be a mere act of truce, or suspension of hostilities; that does not amount to peace.
In this work of perpetual peace the author is of the opinion that the state of peace can only happen when the citizens are enlightened; this is the reason why he does not directly deal with the process of peace but the articles about peace. The author intended to show how peace can be achieved by first transforming the state of peace in a state of law, jurisdialisant relations between states. In this context the author states “the state of peace is not a state of nature, which is rather a state of war, so must the state of peace is established” 3 .
Butler’s article ‘violence, Mourning, politics’ describes issues of violence, war, and politics. The author tries to highlight that mourning can be used provide resources for rethinking of the community, and of international relations. Additionally the article shows that military preemption and derealization of loss undermines human ties. Mourning as suggested in the article should come from the practice of mourning.
In the Butler article the thesis statement reads “I propose to consider a dimension of politics life that has to do with… our vulnerability to loss and the task of mourning that follows and with finding a basis for community in these conditions 4 ” some of the ethical issues portrayed here include the grief value, vulnerability and imbalance. The author states human beings experience themselves only through their experiences and loss of other human beings. There is also an observable common language across ethnic, national, racial and economic difference, grief and loss is universally shared experience that may help to develop a more ethical empathetic global community. Therefore the audience can deduce that vulnerability and mourning are essential parts of politics. Mourning can be utilized in forming a community and fulfill ethical duty.
In “the origins of Totalitarianism” Hannah Arendt deals with the subject of minorities in the pre-world war II Europe. The author claims that human rights can only be enforced through nationality for rights can only be guaranteed and protected by the government of the state 5 . Arendt deals with showing the ineffectiveness of the League of Nations framework in handling the massive problem of minority groups in Europe – specifically she speaks about the Jews. this community was treated as aliens because they did not had a state of their own in Europe. It is estimated that during this time there were around 9.5 million Jews who were spread across Europe.
Arendt claims that the league of nation’s framework failed because they were only interested in protecting people from their own nationalities. Some of the reasons behind this move were national security, economic expense and national purity doctrines 6 . Consequently the Jews were moved around Europe as most of the countries were unwilling to take them into their cities.
Hannah Arendt appears to be a witness of the atrocities that happened in Europe in 1914. She gives a clear recount of the war time “the quiet sorrow which settles down after a catastrophe has never come to pass” 7 . The war happened like a chain reaction and eventually most Europe was engulfed in the war. Additionally the author uses crude critic on the rights of man. She wrote that “the rights of man after all had been defined as inalienable because they were supposed pt be independent of all governments, but is turned out that the moment human beings lacked their own government, and had to fall back upon their minimum rights, no authority was left to protect them, and no institution was left to guarantee them” 8 .
Process of Building Towards A Global Culture Of Ethics
Each of the mentioned articles was responding to some specific historical events. Arendt was responding to the suffering and murder of the Jews in Europe. The Jews were treated as aliens and denied their human rights. Judith Butler tried to highlight how politic and violence made people to be vulnerable to pains, loss and grief. Mourning is seen as a task that follows such activities and used to reduce the feeling of loss. Kant highlights how peace can be achieved in the community. It is shown that true peace can be achieved if there are Free states and the rule of law.
The three articles are significant in the process of building a global culture of ethics. Firstly Kant illustrates that war is subject to veto moral imperative of peace, a political reason, a political duty. Thus the author suggests that there can be perpetual peace when there are wall established states that follows the rule of law.
Kant further demonstrates that global culture of ethics can be achieved when there is enlightenment among members of the community. He defines enlightenment as the courage to develop own knowledge or the capacity to understand relying on peoples own resources 9 . Kant further proposes that to have effective ethics people should fearless questioning and thinking dangerously that leads to rational and social, maturity. When there is maturity people will be able to push for effective ethics.
Butler claims that ethics can be achieved through the effort to look and the loss, pain and grief. She suggests mourning as thing that can be used to rethink and establish a community that is built on ethics. She wrote that “when we mourn something about who we are is revealed, something that delineates the ties we have with other, that shows us that these ties constitute what we are, ties or bonds that compose us. 10 ” Mourning has a transforming power and will help understand what other are going through therefore it can be used to deter violence and destructive politics.
Arendt claims that if there are Free states that follow the rule of law, there would be no marginalization of the minority communities. She proposes that no person should be alienated in the human rights and that government should work to create a balance and proper polices that respects all human. If there is no rule of law human rights will not be respected or achieved. Ethics can only be achieved if there is rule of law and there are governments in place to protect such rights.
Bibliography
Arendt, Hannah. "The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man." (2009).
Arendt, Hannah. The origins of totalitarianism . Vol. 244. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1973.
Butler, Judith. "Violence, mourning, politics." Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4, no. 1 (2003): 9-37.
Kant, Immanuel. Perpetual peace and other essays . Hackett Publishing, 1983.
Oneal, John R., and Bruce M. Russett. "The Kantian peace: The pacific benefits of democracy, interdependence, and international organizations, 1885–1992." In Bruce M. Russett: Pioneer in the Scientific and Normative Study of War, Peace, and Policy , pp. 74-108. Springer, Cham, 2015.
1 Kant, Immanuel. Perpetual peace and other essays. Hackett Publishing, 1983.
2 Kant. Perpetual peace and other essays. 1983.
3 Kant, Immanuel. Perpetual peace and other essays. Hackett Publishing, 1983.
4 Arendt, Hannah. "The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man." (2009).
5 Arendt, Hannah. The origins of totalitarianism. Vol. 244. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1973.
6 Arendt, Hannah. "The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man." (2009).
7 Arendt, Hannah. "The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man." (2009).
8 Arendt. "The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man." (2009).
9 Oneal, and Russett. "The Kantian peace: The pacific benefits of democracy, interdependence, and international organizations, 1885–1992." 2015
10 Butler, Judith. "Violence, mourning, politics." Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4, no. 1 (2003): 9-37.
