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ARE THERE MORAL REASONS TO REMEMBER THE FIRST WORLD WAR?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2015

William Isdale
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Abstract

2014 marked the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. This paper considers whether there are moral reasons to remember wars. It is argued that the most convincing reason for remembering wars is that they provide valuable lessons about human nature. The First World War elucidates several aspects of human nature, including our tribalism, sheepishness, drive for honour and over-confidence. Taking heed of these lessons may help avert future conflict.

Type
Research Article
Information
Think , Volume 14 , Issue 41 , Autumn 2015 , pp. 89 - 97
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy 2015 

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References

Notes

1 This outline of Fabre's arguments comes from a talk she gave entitled ‘Remembering War’, given as part of Oxford University's ‘Changing Character of War’ lecture series, and from a printed hand-out that accompanied that talk. A recording of the talk is available at <http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/remembering-war>.

2 David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 60.

3 Correlli Barnett, The Great War (London: Park Lane Press, 1979), 62.

4 Ibid.

5 Michael Howard, The Lessons of History (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992), 132.

6 Michael Howard, The First World War: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 40.

7 A.J.P. Taylor, The First World War: An Illustrated History (London: Penguin Books, 1966), 163.

8 Steven Pinker, The Better Angels of Our Nature: The Decline of Violence in History and Its Causes (London: Penguin, 2011), 247.

9 Margaret MacMillan, ‘The Rhyme of History’, Brookings Institution (14th December, 2013) <http://www.brookings.edu/research/essays/2013/rhyme-of-history>.

10 Howard, above n 5, 120.

11 Dominic Johnson, Overconfidence and War: The Havoc and Glory of Positive Illusions (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007).

12 Quoted in Richard Toye, The Roar of the Lion: The Untold Story of Churchill's World War II Speeches (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), 18.

13 From Arthur Conan Doyle's ‘Our Last Bow’. Available online at <https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/doyle/arthur_conan/d75la/chapter8.html>.

14 Ingmar Persson and Julian Savulescu, Unfit For The Future: The Need for Moral Enhancement (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 133.

15 Quoted in Margaret MacMillan, The Uses and Abuses of History (London: Profile Books, 2009), 161.

16 Jonathan Glover, Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century (New Haven: Yale Nota Bene, 2001), 7.