PHILOSOPHY AND MORAL REALITY OF WAR
Keywords:
lived experience of war, 20th century wars, 20th century French philosophy, moral reality of war, Russo-Ukrainian warAbstract
The article continues the analysis proposed by R. Brague on the “consequences of the experience of war for philosophers” and “the influence of such experience on their way of thinking.” The author suggests distinguishing between different experiences of war based on the nature of conflicts and the ways of participating in them. Furthermore, the article argues that philosophical thought can be influenced not only by firsthand experiences of war — whether as a soldier or a civilian affected by combat — but also by the discovery, through war, of unexpected aspects of human life or history that challenge certain philosophical theories, modes of philosophizing, or philosophy as a whole.
The article examines the reactions of 20th century French philosophers to war, particularly those who sought to summarize the experience of specific conflicts and conceptualize war as a reality that challenged them. Special attention is given to the differing perceptions of World War I and World War II by successive generations of philosophers, as illustrated by Alain’s book Mars: Or, The Truth about War (1921) and M. Merleau-Ponty’s article “The War Has Taken Place” (1945). The study also includes a comparative analysis of how World War II shaped the intellectual trajectories of M. Merleau-Ponty and R. Aron. The author argues that J. Baudrillard’s book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991) continues the tradition of “postwar” texts by French philosophers, summarizing the consequences of the Cold War and conceptualizing the nature of new forms of warfare.
Building on these analyses, the author demonstrates that one of the consequences of the transformation of warfare following the end of the Cold War has been the gradual disappearance of what M. Walzer termed the “moral reality of war,” a characteristic feature of 20th century conflicts. However, with the resurgence of full-scale and prolonged interstate war due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, this moral reality is being revived — posing a challenge, at the very least, those philosophers who have gained lived experience of this war.
References
Alain. (1921). Mars ou La guerre jugée. Paris: Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française.
Aron, R. (1938). Essai sur une théorie de l’histoire dans l’Allemagne contemporaine. La philosophie critique de l’histoire. Paris: Vrin.
Aron, R. (1948). Le Grand Schisme. Paris: Gallimard.
Aron, R. (1951). Les guerres en chaîne. Paris: Gallimard.
Aron, R. (1976). Penser la guerre. Clausewitz. T. I: L’âge européen; T. II: L’âge planétaire. Paris: Gallimard.
Aron, R. (1989). Leçons sur l’histoire. Cours du Collège de France (S. Mesure, établissement du texte, présentation et notes). Paris: Éditions de Fallois.
Aron, R. (2000). Peace and War (trans. by V. Shovkun, Z. Borysiuk, H. Filipchuk). [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Univers.
Aron, R. (2005). Introduction to the Philosophy of History: An Essay on the Limits of Historical Objectivity (rev. and comment. by S. Mesure, trans. by O. Yosypenko, S. Yosypenko). [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Ukrainskyi Tsentr Dukhovnoi Kultury.
Baudrillard, J. (1991). La guerre du Golfe n’a pas eu lieu. Paris: Galilée.
Baudrillard, J. (2002). L’esprit du terrorisme. Paris: Galilée.
Baudrillard, J. (2004). Symbolic Exchange and Death (trans. by L. Kononovych). [In Ukrainian]. Lviv: Kalvaria.
Berns, T. (2019). La guerre des philosophes. Paris: PUF. https://doi.org/10.3917/puf.berns.2019.01
Brague, R. (2019). Guerre et philosophie. In: Baechler, J. (ed.). Guerre et Histoire (p. 283–292). Paris: Hermann. https://doi.org/10.3917/herm.baech.2019.01.0283
Cléro, J.-P. (2001). Merleau-Ponty et la guerre. Un aspect des rapports de la philosophie de la perception et de la politique. Études littéraires, 33(3), 229–250. https://doi.org/10.7202/501321ar
Jünger, E. (2022). War as an Inner Experience. [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Stylet i Stylos. Merleau-Ponty, M. (1947). Humanisme et terreur. Essais sur le problème communiste. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1955). Les Aventures de la dialectique. Paris: Éditions Gallimard.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1966). La guerre a eu lieu. In: Merleau-Ponty, M. Sens et non-sens (cinquième édition; pp. 245–269). Paris: Éditions Nagel.
Merleau-Ponty, M. (2001). Phenomenology of Perception (trans. by O. Yosypenko, S. Yosypenko). [In Ukrainian]. Kyiv: Ukrainskyi Tsentr Dukhovnoi Kultury.
Münkler, H. (1992). Gewalt und Ordnung: das Bild des Krieges im politischen Denken. Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag.
Münkler, H. (1993). Représenter la “réalité” de la guerre. Cultures & Conflits, 09–10, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.4000/conflits.300
Walzer, M. (2006). Just and Unjust Wars. A Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. Fourth edition. New York: Basic Books.
Worms, F. (2012) . La guerre jugée par la philosophie, la philosophie jugée par la guerre. Les deux épreuves du XXe siècle. Commentaire, 140(4), 1075–1080. https://doi.org/10.3917/comm.140.1075
Yosypenko, S. (2022). The Long Twentieth Century? [In Ukrainian]. Filosofska Dumka, 3, 83–97. https://doi.org/10.15407/fd2022.03.083
Yosypenko, S. (2024). From a just war to a just peace. Moral principles and limits of compromises in wartimes. [In Ukrainian]. Filosofska Dumka, 4, 87–112. https://doi.org/10.15407/fd2024.04.087
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
