On Raymond Aron’s War Ethics

Raymond Aron (1905-1983) was born in a jewish bourgeoisie family in Paris,famousas a political philosopher, sociologist and political commentator. In France, Aron isconsidered to be one of the most influential thinkers. Raymond Aron’s war ethics areaccorded with its probable determinism on the philosophy of history, the epistemology ofbounded rationality, the political rationality of political philosophy. The core of Aron’s warethics is prudence, which is concentrated reflection of human rationality.Raymond Aron’swar ethics maybe are helpful to enrich Marxist ethics of war in China.Except introduction and epilogue, this article is divided into four chapters. In the firstchapter, focus on Aron’s life experience and personality characteristics, emphasis on hisworks and thoughts. We can see that Aron’s political philosophy deeply influences theview about war. Aron doesn’t agree that the law of history has already been decided, andthe economic base is not the decisive factor. History is unknown and uncertain. Arondeclares a probabilistic determinism instead of historical determinism. On politicalphilosophy, Aron emphasizes on rationality. It is not wise to pursue part of the good, butlose the common good. Aron emphasizes to take into account the reality and ideal.Thisidea corresponding to war ethics is prudence, which opposes to break out war for thebiggest justice. War should not make the greatest of evils, only for some good. The secondchapter is mainly to explore the theoretical sources of his war ethics. They mainly comefrom Clausewitz, Enlightenment thinkers, Morgenthau, etc, it is clear that Aron’s warethics is actually a modification of realism. Many of his ideas are correspondent withrealistic theorists. However, Aron puts the reality to the rationality, this is similar toAristotle’s "middle way", conforming to the principle of justice. So, Aron’s theoryessentially is a kind of justice war theory of rationalism. The third chapter is about hismain content of war ethics. Firstly, analyzes his view about justice of war from “jus adbellum”,“jus in bellum” and “jus post bellum”. Then specifically analyzes his nuclear warethics. Finally, analyzes the core of Aron’s war ethics-prudence. In the fourth chapter,analyzes Aron’s war ethics at first. In fact, Aron’s war ethics stands for capitalism, whichhas positive sides and negative sides. Aron’s war ethics is a kind of justice war ethics withprudence as its core, which combine rationalism and utilitarianism. At last, analyze itstheoretical significance and practical significance. Aron’s War Ethics are beneficial topromote the development of Marxist ethics of war, helpful to maintain peace and stabilityof the world.