Executive summary: Pacifism is morally superior to war because modern warfare inevitably causes massive loss of innocent life, has highly uncertain long-term benefits, and rarely passes a reasonable cost-benefit analysis.
Key points:
War causes huge immediate loss of innocent life and wealth, while its long-term benefits are unpredictable. For war to be justified, its benefits must substantially outweigh these immediate costs.
Threatening retaliation often increases others’ desire for revenge, so the standard economic analysis that pacifism encourages aggression is inadequate.
While self-defense can be justified, modern war almost always recklessly endangers innocents, like throwing a grenade into a crowd to stop a gunman.
Historical examples show even “just” wars often lead to worse unforeseen consequences. Preventing WWI through pacifism could have averted WWII and later horrors.
Pacifism argues we should be very confident of large net benefits before killing innocents, especially foreigners. It is a “radical notion” that human life deserves great moral weight.
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Executive summary: Pacifism is morally superior to war because modern warfare inevitably causes massive loss of innocent life, has highly uncertain long-term benefits, and rarely passes a reasonable cost-benefit analysis.
Key points:
War causes huge immediate loss of innocent life and wealth, while its long-term benefits are unpredictable. For war to be justified, its benefits must substantially outweigh these immediate costs.
Threatening retaliation often increases others’ desire for revenge, so the standard economic analysis that pacifism encourages aggression is inadequate.
While self-defense can be justified, modern war almost always recklessly endangers innocents, like throwing a grenade into a crowd to stop a gunman.
Historical examples show even “just” wars often lead to worse unforeseen consequences. Preventing WWI through pacifism could have averted WWII and later horrors.
Pacifism argues we should be very confident of large net benefits before killing innocents, especially foreigners. It is a “radical notion” that human life deserves great moral weight.
This comment was auto-generated by the EA Forum Team. Feel free to point out issues with this summary by replying to the comment, and contact us if you have feedback.