How Terrorism Is Wrong: Morality and Political Violence by Virginia Held

by Virginia Held

How Terrorism Is Wrong offers a moral assessment of various forms of political violence, with terrorism the focus of much of the discussion. Held also considers military intervention, conventional war, intervention to protect human rights, violence to prevent political change, and the status and requirements of international law. She examines the possible connection between violence and humiliation and looks at the cases of Rwanda, Kosovo, Iraq, and the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Finally, she explores questions of who has legitimate authority to engage in justifiable uses of violence, whether groups can be responsible for ethnic violence, and how the media should cover terrorism.

Hardcover

First published May 21, 2008

About the author

Virginia Potter Held (born October 28, 1929) is a leading moral, social/political and feminist philosopher whose work on the ethics of care sparked significant research into the ethical dimensions of providing care for others and critiques of the traditional roles of women in society. Held defends care ethics as a distinct moral framework from Kantian, utilitarian and virtue ethics. Held's work on the morality of political violence viewed through the window of ethics of care has also been significantly influential.

Held was named Distinguished Professor at the City University of New York – Graduate Center and Hunter College in 1996, received her Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University in 1968 and worked at Hunter College as lecturer (1965–69), assistant professor (1969–72), associate professor (1973–77) and full professor from 1977 to her retirement in 2001. She was affiliated with the CUNY Graduate Center in 1973, and served as deputy executive officer of the Philosophy program at the CUNY Graduate Center from 1980–1984. She also served as president of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in 2001–2002.

(from Wikipedia)