Pacifism vs Necessary War in Russian Philosophical Discourse of the late 19th - early 20th Century and the Lessons We can Draw from it

Filozofski godišnjak. 2012. Vol. 25. No. 25. P. 365–377.

Кашников Б. Н.

The article deals with the problem of normative evaluation of war and mass violence. The doctrines of Realism, Pacifism, Militarism, Realism and Just War are the most widely used theoretical and normative tools of this evaluation and normative practice. The latest developments have brought the Just War theory to the fore. The peak of popularity of the Just War Theory may prove, nevertheless, to be its swan's song. The recent theoretical findings as well as the political applications of this ethical theory in Kosovo and Iraq, have proved to be somewhat less then adequate, to say the least. Theoretically it hovers uneasily in between Militarism and Pacifism, pragmatically it may work as a smoke screen for the most hideous forms of agression and an instrument of the wide scale information war. The author of this article is holding that we must not put aside the idea of the morally constrained war, it may be modified. The result of this modification may be entitled Necessary War doctrine. The necessary war differs significantly from the just war, it is closer to pacifism and less prone to theoretical critisism. The foundations of this doctrine has been laid by Russian philosopher Ivan Ilyin. 

Ключевые слова: война, just war theory, насилие, теория справедливой войны, necessary war, необходимая война, violence, Justice, War, Справедливость