How would Aquinas advise a soldier who was asked to fight in an unjust war? Would he say that it is more important to follow the will of the sovereign or to disobey that
will in the way advocated by Martin Luther King Jr. in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" (p. 425)?
WRITING ABOUT THE TEXT
Analyze any modern armed conflict using Aquinas's three criteria for a "just war." Consider whether or not these seven-hundred-year-old principles still provide a useful lens through which to view events.
Evaluate Aquinas's use of deductive reasoning in this passage. (See p. 652 for an introduction to deductive reasoning.) Does he construct valid syllogisms, in which the conclusions flow automatically from the premises?
Contrast Aquinas's "just war" argument with Erasmus's pacifist argument in "Against War."
Choose an important contemporary issue and construct a "proof" of your position on it, using this selection from Summa Theologica as a model. Follow Aquinas's organization: state a proposition, outline the potential objections to your case, summarize your basic argument, and respond to each objection.
desiderius erasmus
from Against War [1515]
DESIDERIUS ERASMUS (1446-1 536), one of the most important thinkers of the European Renaissance, was born in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. He was the out- of-wedlock child of a Catholic priest and grew up with very few luxuries; still, he received a first-class education in the religious schools of the Netherlands, where he learned to speak and write fluently in Latin. At the age of twenty-five, he became a priest, but he received a special dispensation to continue his studies and to serve as the secretary to Henry of Bergen, the Bishop of Cambrai.
Erasmus soon developed a reputation as a first-rate scholar. He studied in both France and England and wrote important works of theology and philosophy in Latin. His critical editions of the New Testament in both Greek and Latin played an important role in the Protestant Reformation, much of which occurred during his lifetime. Like Martin Luther and John Calvin, Erasmus was a frequent critic of the Catholic Church, but he never rejected its authority, believing that it could be reformed most effectively from the inside.
Erasmus was closely associated with the movement of Renaissance scholars and philosophers known as humanism. Humanists believed that people were capable of profound thought and great beauty, and that the works of human culture should therefore be studied. Whereas most of the scholars of previous centuries were cloistered monks studying more abstract logic and obscure theology, humanists lived among regular people and studied those disciplines that we now call "humanities," such as literature, art, and history.
Erasmus brings his profoundly humanistic assumptions to the question of human conflict in this selection from his essay "Against War." Here, Erasmus argues that engaging in any kind of violence requires us to reject what is most human about ourselves and embrace what we have in common with beasts. This essay also demonstrates the rhetorical style that Erasmus made famous in his rhetorical treatise, De Copia. He begins with a simple assertion, such as "human beings were made for friendship, not for war," and then deepens this assertion with increasingly elaborate examples.
Dulce Bellum Inexpertis
It is both an elegant proverb, and among all others, by the writings of many excellent authors, full often and solemnly used, Dulce bellum inexpertis, that is to say, War is sweet to them that know it not. There be some things among mortal men's businesses, in the which how great danger and hurt there is, a man cannot perceive till he make a proof. The love and friendship of a great man is sweet to them that be not expert: he that hath had thereof experience, is afraid. It seemeth to be a gay and a glorious thing, to strut up and down among the nobles of the court, and to be occupied in the king's business; but old men, to whom that thing by long experience is well known, do gladly abstain themselves from such felicity. It seemeth a pleasant thing to be in love with a young damsel; but that is unto them that have not yet perceived how much grief and bitterness is in such love. So after this manner of fashion, this proverb may be applied to every business that is adjoined with great peril and with many evils: the which no man will take on hand, but he that is young and wanteth experience of things. . . .
Then first of all if one would consider well but the behaviour and shape of man's body shall he not forthwith perceive that Nature, or rather God, hath shaped this creature, not to war, but to friendship, not to destruction, but to health, not to wrong, but to kindness and benevolence? For whereas Nature hath armed all other beasts with their own armour, as the violence of the bulls she hath armed with horns, the ramping lion with claws; to the boar she hath given the gnashing tusks; she hath armed the elephant with a long trump snout, besides his great huge body and hardness of the skin; she hath fenced the crocodile with a skin as hard as a plate; to the dolphin fish she hath given fins instead of a dart; the porcupine she defendeth with thorns; the ray and thornback with sharp prickles; to the cock she hath given strong spurs; some she fenceth with a shell, some with a hard hide, as it were thick leather, or bark of a tree; some she provideth to save by swiftness of flight, as doves; and to some she hath given venom instead of a weapon; to some she hath given a much horrible and ugly look, she hath given terrible eyes and grunting voice; and she hath also set among some of them continual dissension and debate—man alone she hath brought forth all naked, weak, tender, and without any armour, with most soft flesh and smooth skin.
There is nothing at all in all his members that may seem to be ordained to war, or to any violence. I will not say at this time, that where all other beasts, anon as they are brought forth, they are able of themselves to get their food. Man alone cometh so forth, that a long season after he is born, he dependeth altogether on the help of others. He can neither speak nor go, nor yet take meat; he desireth help only by his infant crying: so that a man may, at the least way, by this conject, that this creature alone was born all to love and amity, which specially increaseth and is fast knit together by good turns done eftsoons[243] of one to another. And for this cause Nature would, that a man should not so much thank her, for the gift of life, which she hath given unto him, as he should thank kindness and benevolence, whereby he might evidently understand himself, that he was altogether dedicate and bounden to the gods of graces, that is to say, to kindness, benevolence, and amity.
And besides this Nature hath given unto man a countenance not terrible and loathly, as unto other brute beasts; but meek and demure, representing the very tokens of love and benevolence. She hath given him amiable eyes, and in them assured marks of the inward mind. She hath ordained him arms to clip and embrace. She hath given him the wit and understanding to kiss: whereby the very minds and hearts of men should be coupled together, even as though they touched each other. Unto man alone she hath given laughing, a token of good cheer and gladness. To man alone she hath given weeping tears, as it were a pledge or token of meekness and mercy. Yea, and she hath given him a voice not threatening and horrible, as unto other brute beasts, but amiable and pleasant. Nature not yet content with all this, she hath given unto man alone the commodity of speech and reasoning: the which things verily may specially both get and nourish benevolence, so that nothing at all should be done among men by violence.
She hath endued man with hatred of solitariness, and with love of company. She 5 hath utterly sown in man the very seeds of benevolence. She hath so done, that the selfsame thing, that is most wholesome, should be most sweet and delectable. For what is more delectable than a friend? And again, what thing is more necessary? Moreover, if a man might lead all his life most profitably without any meddling with other men, yet nothing would seem pleasant without a fellow: except a man would cast off all humanity, and forsaking his own kind would become a beast.