PHILOSOPHY OF WAR FROM DIFFERENT TIMES IN HISTORY

Valentina TenediniIstituto Regina M. Adelaide

A cross-curricular activity on the theme of war

• Covenants without the swords are but words. (Thomas Hobbes 1588-1679)

• War has the higher significance that through it the moral health of people is preserved.

(Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel)

• War is ugly… but not the ugliest of things. The … feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.

(John Stuart Mill 1806-1873)

• Force is justifiable when it is ordered… by a neutral authority; in the general interest and not primarily in the interest of one of the parties to the quarrel.

(Bertrand Russel 1872-1970)

• When the rich wage war it is the poor who will die.

(Jean Paul Sartre 1905-80)

• War is a series of catastrophes which result in Victory.

(George Clemenceau)

• I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.

(Dwight D. Eisenhower)

• Nothing in life is as exhilarating as to be shot as without a result

(Winston Churchill)

• It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labour of peace.

(Andrè Gide)

• It is an unfortunate fact that we can secure peace only by preparing for war.

(J. F. Kennedy)

• Peace is more precious than a peace of land.(Anwar Sadat)

• No bastard ever won a war dying for his country. You win a war by making the other dumb bastard die for his country.

(General George Patton)

• Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind.

(J. F. Kennedy)

• There never was a good war or a bad peace.(Benjamin Franklin)

PHILOSOPHY OF WAR FROM DIFFERENT TIMES IN HISTORY

• Simplify the idea expressed by each of the quotations

• Say who do you agree with or disagree the most

• Say how the attitude to war has changed over time

• See if you can relate any of these statements to wars in the world Today