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This is the first comprehensive study of the core philosophical questions posed by terrorism such as: How should we define it? Is it morally distinctive? Can it be morally justified?
Igor Primoratz seeks to overcome relativism and double standards that often plague debates about terrorism. He investigates the main ethical approaches to terrorism: in terms of its consequences, rights and justice, “supreme emergency,” and the collective responsibility of citizens. The book provides a rigorous, yet accessible analysis of a range of moral positions, from the acceptance of terrorism when its consequences are good on balance to its absolute rejection. Primoratz argues that terrorism is almost absolutely wrong. It may be morally justified only when an entire people is facing a true moral disaster, and this should be understood in a highly restrictive way.
Conceptual analysis and normative arguments about the practice of terrorism are complemented with case studies of terror-bombing of German cities in World War II and the role of terrorism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Terrorism: A Philosophical Investigation will be essential reading for researchers and students of philosophy and politics, and the general reader seeking to understand and evaluate acts and campaigns of terrorism.
- Sales Rank: #1444884 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Polity
- Published on: 2012-12-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x .65" w x 6.50" l, .71 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 224 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
Review
"Probably the best book on terrorism that there is."
Times Higher Education
"Very rich in content and is both clearly written and carefully thought out ... a provocative work that challenges widespread, deeply held moral, political, and historical beliefs. It is hard to imagine how a person could fail to benefit from this valuable overview."
Iyyun
"In this lucid and highly topical book Primoratz replaces the ‘moralistic rhetoric’ of the war on terrorism with a coolly and carefully reasoned evaluation of its target. Whether or not one agrees with his provocative conclusions, Primoratz’s rigorous and comprehensive arguments will need to be reckoned with."
Paul Gilbert, University of Hull
"Primoratz provides an account of terrorism which addresses the topic with the clarity and insight it deserves. Those who are morally perplexed by terrorism should read this book to find out precisely why it is morally unacceptable. Especially valuable is his discussion of state terrorism."
Steven P. Lee, Hobart and William Smith Colleges
About the Author
Igor Primoratz is professorial fellow in the Centre For Applied Philosophy & Public Ethics at Charles Sturt University.
Most helpful customer reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating Book About Terrorism.
By scesq
While I am not a political scientist or historian (more of a history buff who like politics) I have read other books dealing with the idea of terrorism. This is by far the most thorough and complete book I have read. There were moments this read more like a textbook than a book for the casual reader but overall I think anyone interested in such a critical topic of our time would appreciate this book.
The book takes a systematic approach to terrorism. It first looks to define terrorism and then looks at state terrorism and counter terrorism. The author looks at arguments that suggest terrorism and the response to it are not as easily distinguishable as they may seem.
The author then looks at a difficult subject in a chapter called "Complicity of the Victims." This looks at, in part, the idea that people who allow their own governments to take actions which the terrorists are fighting against. While making the case for both sides of the argument the author concludes that the victims are innocent and have no complicity.
The author then looks at the consequences of terrorism, whether there are extreme times when terrorism is justified and whether terrorism is morally distinct from other horrible acts committed in war such as bombing of cities and knowingly killing civilians.
The author then looks in detail at the terror bombing of German cities and terrorism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These are fascinating and will appeal to the history buff as well as the political scientist. This book ends with an extensive notes, references and bibliography section.
This is not an easy read but it is a fascinating read. This took me a few days to read but it was well worth it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
A philosophical approach to terrorism
By Dienne
Igor Primoratz sets out to determine, philosophically, whether "terrorism" is ever morally justified. First off, of course, he has to define it, which is what he spends his first chapter doing. After parsing through a number of other writers' definitions, he boils it down, basically, to terrorism being violence directed against innocent civilians/common citizens for the purpose of intimidating or coercing others. This definition designates terrorism by its victims (innocent people) and by the motivation of intimidation/coercion. The issue of whether the attack is targeted or random is not germane to Primoratz's argument, except to exclude violence directed at military or government targets. Likewise, Primoratz does not define "who" a terrorist is - it can be an individual or group, or even a state.
In fact, Primoratz spends his next chapter discussing state-initiated terrorism, with examples including the terror bombing of German cities, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Israel's attacks against Palestinian terrorists. To constitute "state terrorism", Primoratz stipulates that the violence must be intentionally directed at civilian targets, not just violence in which civilian casualties might be foreseen. Based on this definition, he excludes U.S. drone and similar attacks in Pakistan, Yemen and other Middle Eastern locations because he argues that the U.S. has not intentionally targeted civilians, even though it has certainly been aware of the likelihood of civilian casualties. I wonder if Primoratz is aware of the so-called "double tap" strikes that have intentionally targeted rescuers and funerals of drone victims?
The next several chapters are spent parsing out the arguments that terrorism is (almost) never morally justified. In particular, Primoratz seeks to get beyond the moral relativity of "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" to seek for higher, universally applicable principles. Primoratz explores the argument that civilian victims of terrorist strikes may not be "innocent" by virtue of being part of, affiliated with or benefitting from oppressive governments. This argument is especially salient in the case of peoples of democratic governments which oppress minority or out-group peoples - it's hard to argue that people in a democracy aren't responsible for the actions of their governments. But Primoratz explores the issue of just how much control any people have over their government, democratic or otherwise, plus the problem of those who are not capable of being responsible for their government's actions (such as children) and those who have opposed their government in favor of the oppressed group. Since there is no way to definitively separate out the truly innocent from the guilty-by-association, even a very broad definition of "guilty" is not sufficient to justify terrorism.
Primoratz also explores the argument that, regardless of the innocence of the victims, sometimes perhaps terrorism may be justified if a greater good can be achieved through terrorism for larger numbers of people. He does allow a tiny bit of wiggle room for the possibility of terrorism being justified if (a) a people (as defined by a collective identity, such as, perhaps "Israelis" or "Palestinians") faces an extreme "moral catastrophe" such as genocide or ethnic cleansing which would mean their extinction as a people and (b) terrorism is not only likely to prevent that outcome, but is the only means of doing so. However, by briefly parsing through a number of hypothetical and some actual events, he pretty much eliminates this as a possibility; certainly no actual events that Primoratz mentions qualify by these conditions. One problem is the unlikelihood of the use of violence arousing enough sympathy for the terrorism-using group to actually help them in their existential struggle - more likely it will have the opposite effect.
For those who, like me, find straight philosophy to be rather dry and cumbersome, and for those who, again like me, have trouble getting their heads around abstract principles detached from actual events, Primoratz 's final two sections deal with two specific situations: (1) the terror bombing of German cities during World War II, and (2) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Primoratz first of all demonstrates how, by specifically and openly targeting civilian targets with the express aim of breaking the will of the German people in order to force them to prevail upon their government to end the war, the terror bombing in Germany does indeed qualify for his definition of terrorism, even though conducted by a state actor (the Allied Forces, specifically the RAF). He further explodes the idea that such terrorism could be justified on the grounds of "moral catastrophe". He does concede that a German victory would have resulted in something at least approaching a moral catastrophe, with the genocide of the Jewish people and the virtual enslavement of many others, he rejects the idea that the terrorism was the only way - or even an effective way to stop such an outcome. First of all, by the time the terrorism started, the Allied forces had already advanced far enough that wholesale defeat was an unlikely proposition. Furthermore, the Allies should have learned from their own experience of the Battle of Britain, that sustained bombing strengthens, rather than weakens, the resolve of the civilian population.
Although both Israeli and Palestinian partisans would probably disagree, Primoratz is very balanced in his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a philosopher, he is trying to find universal principles to apply across situations, regardless of one's personal beliefs. By the standards he set out in the first seven chapters of the book, he concludes that both the Palestinians and the Israelis have engaged in "terrorism" by his definition and, in keeping with his conclusions in the first seven chapters, neither side has been morally justified in doing so. He explodes the myth that the Israelis have even faced "moral catastrophe" sufficient to justify terrorism, as they have always had military superiority, as well as international support from the European powers. If anything, it is the Palestinians who have faced - and still face - the threat of annihilation as a people. Yet still, Palestinian terrorism is not morally justified because of the unlikelihood that violence, especially against civilian targets, will ameliorate their fate as a people. Unfortunately, Primoratz is rather silent on alternative ideas.
Philosophy in general is really not my cup of tea, especially on the issue of terrorism. It's very uncomfortable to be talking in dry, abstract terms about something that, in reality, means the destruction of actual life and limb and the devastating effects on family and friends of the victims. Furthermore, I doubt the terrorists themselves (individual or state) spend much time worrying about such concerns, as some quick rationalizations are all it takes to justify our selfish, violence-fueled human desires for "vengeance". But then, I'm pretty much anti-violence in general, including war, so the question of whether we even have to discuss whether violence against the innocent is ever justified seems pretty alien to me, and I suppose it's a necessary conversation to have. Will it change anything? Probably not, because humans are very irrational animals. But then, it doesn't hurt to try either.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
"probably the best book on terrorism that there is"
By Jim
Terrorism: A Philosophical Investigation is exactly as the title suggests, a scholarly, heady philosophical investigation of the nature, practice, definition, ethics and morality of terrorism. The author put it together by drawing on half a dozen published philosophical papers on terrorism that he wrote between 1990 and 2011. It is a reader-friendly book though I would say a bit less so than books on philosophy such as many found in Oxford University Press's Very Short Introductions Series. If you are contemplating whether to read Terrorism, I highly recommend that you search for philosopher Ted Honderich's review, which begins with the line, "This is probably the best book on terrorism that there is." That's quite an acknowledgement given that Terrorism author Ivan Primoratz takes Honderich to task in Terrorism for Honderich's consequentialist approach to terrorism. Primoratz, who is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, also takes morally relativistic approaches to terrorism to task. (Honderich's review is at timeshighereducation dot co dot uk)
As one might expect in a book on this subject, attention is paid (and a chapter devoted) to discussion of terrorism in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Primoratz also devotes a chapter to the "terror bombing of German cities" during WWII. When reading Primoratz on the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, I couldn't help but recall bin Laden implying to NBC's John Miller in an interview that because America did not distinguish "between the military and the civilians or between men and women or adults and children" when America used "weapons of mass destruction" against these Japanese cities, "retaliation in kind" is warranted (a transcript of this May, 1998 interview can be found at the PBS site). Primoratz would disagree.
I found Primoratz's discussion of state terrorism compelling, along with his nuanced comments on "the war on terror" and "collateral damage."
At 174 pages this is a fairly slim volume but it is densely packed and I found myself drawn to reread many parts, sometimes for the sake of better comprehension and often to appreciate the crystal clarity of Primoratz's thinking on this complex, painful topic.
Highly recommended.
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