{"id":{"repo_id":"missouri","oai_identifier":"oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/15159"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/missouri/oai:mospace.umsystem.edu:10355/15159","repository":{"repo_id":"missouri","name":"University of Missouri","base_url":"https://mospace.umsystem.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Justifying war : an account of just and merely justifying causes for war","abstract":"[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My project is to offer a new answer to the traditional question: What can justify the resort to war? I defend substantive accounts of the Just Cause and Justifying Cause conditions: the reasons that can make it just and permissible (respectively) to go to war against our opponents. My contention is that each of these requires us to focus on the rights of our individual opponents, and that once we do this, it becomes evident that conventional warfare is hardly ever just, or even justified. This is because (1) it is unjust to intentionally subject the morally innocent to a high risk of being intentionally killed, (2) it is very difficult even to justify doing this, and (3) conventional warfare involves imposing a substantial amount of such risk. I argue that morality requires us to either stop fighting wars, or target them more narrowly against those most responsible for the wrongful threats we seek to prevent (usually the military and political leaders).","abstract_html":"[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR&#x27;S REQUEST.] My project is to offer a new answer to the traditional question: What can justify the resort to war? I defend substantive accounts of the Just Cause and Justifying Cause conditions: the reasons that can make it just and permissible (respectively) to go to war against our opponents. My contention is that each of these requires us to focus on the rights of our individual opponents, and that once we do this, it becomes evident that conventional warfare is hardly ever just, or even justified. This is because (1) it is unjust to intentionally subject the morally innocent to a high risk of being intentionally killed, (2) it is very difficult even to justify doing this, and (3) conventional warfare involves imposing a substantial amount of such risk. I argue that morality requires us to either stop fighting wars, or target them more narrowly against those most responsible for the wrongful threats we seek to prevent (usually the military and political leaders).","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Allen, Crystal"],"institution":"University of Missouri--Columbia","degree_name":"Ph. D.","degree_level":"Doctoral","degree_discipline":"Philosophy (MU)","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Vallentyne, Peter"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2012,"date_issued":"2012","date_published":"2012","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:08:32Z","subjects":["war","human rights","just cause","ethics"],"languages":["eng","English"],"rights":["Access to files is limited to the campuses of the University of Missouri with SSO login."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/15159"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/15159","href":"https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/15159","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/10355/15159","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Vallentyne, Peter"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Allen, Crystal"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2012-09-06T19:14:27Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2012-09-06T19:14:27Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2012"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["University of Missouri--Columbia"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Philosophy (MU)"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Doctoral"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph. D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Missouri--Columbia"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["war","human rights","just cause","ethics"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["English"]},{"key":"dc:language.iso","label":"Language (ISO)","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Access to files is limited to the campuses of the University of Missouri with SSO login."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.doi","label":"DOI","values":["https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/15159"]},{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/10355/15159"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 6, 2012).","The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.","Dissertation advisor: Peter Vallentyne, Ph.D.","Includes bibliographical references.","Vita.","Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012.","\"May 2012\""]},{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My project is to offer a new answer to the traditional question: What can justify the resort to war? I defend substantive accounts of the Just Cause and Justifying Cause conditions: the reasons that can make it just and permissible (respectively) to go to war against our opponents. My contention is that each of these requires us to focus on the rights of our individual opponents, and that once we do this, it becomes evident that conventional warfare is hardly ever just, or even justified. This is because (1) it is unjust to intentionally subject the morally innocent to a high risk of being intentionally killed, (2) it is very difficult even to justify doing this, and (3) conventional warfare involves imposing a substantial amount of such risk. I argue that morality requires us to either stop fighting wars, or target them more narrowly against those most responsible for the wrongful threats we seek to prevent (usually the military and political leaders)."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Justifying war : an account of just and merely justifying causes for war"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Vallentyne, Peter"],"dc:creator":["Allen, Crystal"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2012-09-06T19:14:27Z"],"dc:date.available":["2012-09-06T19:14:27Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2012"],"dc:description":["Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on September 6, 2012).","The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file.","Dissertation advisor: Peter Vallentyne, Ph.D.","Includes bibliographical references.","Vita.","Ph. D. University of Missouri--Columbia 2012.","\"May 2012\""],"dc:description.abstract":["[ACCESS RESTRICTED TO THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI AT AUTHOR'S REQUEST.] My project is to offer a new answer to the traditional question: What can justify the resort to war? I defend substantive accounts of the Just Cause and Justifying Cause conditions: the reasons that can make it just and permissible (respectively) to go to war against our opponents. My contention is that each of these requires us to focus on the rights of our individual opponents, and that once we do this, it becomes evident that conventional warfare is hardly ever just, or even justified. This is because (1) it is unjust to intentionally subject the morally innocent to a high risk of being intentionally killed, (2) it is very difficult even to justify doing this, and (3) conventional warfare involves imposing a substantial amount of such risk. I argue that morality requires us to either stop fighting wars, or target them more narrowly against those most responsible for the wrongful threats we seek to prevent (usually the military and political leaders)."],"dc:identifier.doi":["https://doi.org/10.32469/10355/15159"],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/10355/15159"],"dc:language":["English"],"dc:language.iso":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["University of Missouri--Columbia"],"dc:rights":["Access to files is limited to the campuses of the University of Missouri with SSO login."],"dc:subject":["war","human rights","just cause","ethics"],"dc:title":["Justifying war : an account of just and merely justifying causes for war"],"dc:type":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Philosophy (MU)"],"thesis:degree_level":["Doctoral"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph. D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Missouri--Columbia"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:08:32Z"}