A Delicate Balance: What Philosophy Can Tell Us About Terrorism

by Trudy Govier

Did the world change on September 11, 2001? For those who live outside of New York or Washington, life's familiar pace persists and families and jobs resume their routines. Yet everything seems different because of the dramatic disturbance in our sense of what our world means and how we exist within it. In A Delicate Balance, philosopher Trudy Govier writes that it is because our feelings and attitudes have altered so fundamentally that our world has changed. Govier believes that there are ethical challenges we cannot ignore. From Plato and Aristotle on courage to Kant on revenge, to 20th Century philosopher John Rawls’s views on justice, Govier mines the world of philosophy to reflect on terrorism. Govier argues that moral complexities such as victimhood, evil, power and revenge, if properly understood, can provide a basis for hope– not despair. Govier walks the reader through this shift, challenging us to construct a new sense of the world and our place within it.

Genres: Philosophy

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Is0lde · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Whether it's the French Revolution in the eighteenth century or the war against terrorism in the twenty-first, events in history don't interpret themselves. It is we who interpret events- and we can do that with varying degrees of dogmatism, skepticism, hope, or despair. Within limits, we shape history by the interpretation we endorse and the values and principles on which we act." (P. 168; Hope)"

A Delicate Balance is an accessible and interesting philosophical essay about concepts such as "hope" "responsibility" and "vindication" in a "post-9/11" world!

[Christiane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing book and profound analysis. I make Archbishop Desmond Tutu's words mine when he comments on the book "A refreshing antidote to the too frequent, usual knee-jerk stereotypical responses."