I was at our local Good Will store yesterday perusing their 79-cent paperbacks and picked up a copy of an anthology of essays on war and morality which were originally published in the journal Philosophy and Public Affairs. Last night I sat down and read Thomas Nagel’s “War and Massacre,” which is a qualified defense of “absolutist” restraints on what can permissibly be done in wartime. Nagel contrasts the absolutist position with a pure utilitarianism for which consequences alone matter.

Despite being written during the Vietnam War, it still resonates with many of the issues we’re facing now.

You can read the essay online here.