Title: Barbarous philosophers : reflections on the nature of war from Heraclitus to Heisenberg /
Authors: Coker, Christopher.
Publisher: Hurst,
Year: 2010
Subjects: War (Philosophy) History.
Abstract: 'Barbarous Philosophers' discusses the nature of war through the work of 16 philosophers, from Heraclitus in the 6th century B.C. to the philosopher-physicist Werner Heisenberg writing in the 1950s.
Contents: Rousseau's complaint -- The dialectics of warfare : war and peace -- Pascal's rules -- Why war? : why war changes the world and is itself tranformed by the changes it promotes (Heraclitus of Ephesus c. 540-480 BC) -- War and human ambition : why the rules of war are paradoxical (Thucydides c. 460-400 BC) -- War and the soul : why war is Trinitarian (Plato (1) c. 427-347 BC) -- War and art : why war encourages imitation (Plato (2)) -- War and politics : why war is a continuation of politics by other means, and not its negation (Aristotle 384-322 BC) -- War as pacification : why war can be seen as policing (Tacitus AD 54-120) -- War and peace : why peace is a contested concept (St. Augustine AD 354-430) -- War and social norms : why we still distrust mercenaries (Machiavelli 1469-1527) -- War and human nature : why war (unlike warfare) encourages competitiveness, not competition (Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679) -- War and battle : why battles are rarely 'decisive' (Montesquieu 1689-1755) -- War and ethics : why we should respect our enemies even if they don't respect us (Immanuel Kant 1724-1804) -- War and history : why war is often 'ethical' (or progressive) (Hegel 1770-1831) -- War and technology : why weapons have a social history (Marx 1818-83) -- War and culture : why war has its own 'cultural grammar' (Engels 1820-95) -- War and the warrior : why the warrior is a human type (Nietzsche 1844-1900) -- War and the future : why war is not a science (Heisenberg 1901-76).