Ethics and weapons of mass destruction : religious and secular perspectives /

Can one justifiably kill a million children? This question is addressed by a comprehensive anthology that accomplishes the unusual task of combining articles from political realists, philosophers, and religious experts to examine the ethics of weapons of mass destruction. The political realist pieces both introduce the reader to realism and explain how realists evaluate these weapons. The religious pieces are overwhelming in their scope; contributors explain the Christian (both Catholic/Natural Law and Protestant), Buddhist, Confucian, Hindu, Islamic, and Jewish points of view, often through the just-war theory of the faith. Philosophically, readers will garner perspectives ranging among the liberal, feminist, pragmatic, and pacifist. The list of contributors is impressive and the articles do not disappoint. Yet one wonders whether the overall effect is to sanction the status quo rather than reveal its defects. Given that the status quo is rapidly approaching a proliferation of such proportion that the moral issues of deterrence and use will quickly become otiose, a critique might have proved more timely and useful. Finally, does one need so big a book to answer so simple a question? ^BSumming Up: Recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above. R. Werner Hamilton College