ASSESSING MORAL TRAGEDY PACIFISM

Pacifism and just war theory share the same binary approach to analyze the morality of war. According to binarism, any war is either morally justified or morally unjustified and when waging a war is morally unjustified, not waging that war is morally justified. Moral tragedy pacifism, advocated by Nicholas Parkin, argues that while waging war is always morally unjustified, on some occasions not waging war may also be morally unjustified. On those occasions, agents face a moral tragedy, in which there is no morally justified choice all things considered. In this essay, I present three arguments against moral tragedy pacifism and indirectly in favor of binarism.