Practice Job Talk: Jen Kling

Jen Kling will present, “Supreme Emergencies? They Don’t Exist. And Even If They Did…”

Abstract:

In this paper, I discuss non-combatant immunity in extreme wartime situations. Contra several well-known just war theorists, I argue that intentionally attacking non-combatants, even in cases of apparent supreme emergency, is never morally justified. I argue that this is the case because, in the actual world, there are always other morally better options (in the context of the just war tradition). And furthermore, even if it were to be the case that there is no morally better option, I argue that the relevant commander-in-chief would not be morally justified in ordering an intentional attack on non-combatants, because such a situation would be epistemically identical to a situation wherein other morally better options are available. Given such epistemic uncertainty, and the extraordinarily high stakes involved, the commander-in-chief is not morally justified in ordering an intentional attack on non-combatants.