niversity undergraduate course)

What makes killing wrong? Killing is often cited as a paradigmatic example of morally wrong conduct, but it is not so easy to develop a moral theory which provides an account of the wrongness of killing that adequately covers all cases. Is there a moral difference between killing and letting die (see Acts and Omissions and Euthanasia)? When is killing justified? Is it justified in self-defence? Is the killing of the innocent ever justified? There are obvious connections between killing and war. Is war ever justified? If so, under what conditions? Some theorists have attempted to set out criteria for a just war. The existence of nuclear weapons has heightened the stakes and changed the nature of war (as nuclear weapons are possessed precisely in order to deter their use by others) and raises various moral issues and paradoxes.

R. Norman, Ethics, Killing, and War
J. McMahan, The Ethics of Killing
J. Glover, Causing Death and Saving Lives
R.L. Holmes, On War and Morality
M. Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars
P. Ramsey, The Just War
J. Teichman, Pacificism and the Just War
G. Kavka, Moral Paradoxes of Nuclear Deterrence
A. Kenny, The Logic of Deterrence
R. Hardin et al (eds.), Nuclear Deterrence: Ethics and Strategy