About the So-Called Principle of Lesser Evil Cover Image

O takozvanom principu manjeg zla
About the So-Called Principle of Lesser Evil

Author(s): Lino Veljak
Subject(s): Ethics / Practical Philosophy, Social Philosophy, Studies in violence and power
Published by: Hrvatsko Filozofsko Društvo
Keywords: war; justifiable war; violence; peace; evil; pacifism;

Summary/Abstract: Western philosophical tradition is marked by unequivocal domination of monism. Because of that, the principle of lesser evil isn’t exactly among highly regarded philosophical principles, primarily among the those of practical philosophy, or among reflections on ethical activities. Based on pessimistically understood persuasion according to which people often (if not always) have to choose in their actions between two or more decisions, all of them marked by morally unacceptable actions (or, more radically: each of them means some sort of commitment in evildoing), the principle of lesser evil tends to demonstrate itself in the issues of war and violence – in its complete antinomy. The analysis of the concepts of abstract pacifism and justifiable war can point to the dramatics of the implementation of the concept of lesser evil and open some space for a proper rethinking of the different possibilities of the approach to the problem of war and peace.

  • Issue Year: 36/2016
  • Issue No: 04/144
  • Page Range: 633-639
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Croatian