Of Beasts, Gods, and Civilized Men - The Justification of Terrorism and of Counterterrorist Measures

• NCJ Number: 86084
• Journal: Terrorism Volume: 6 Issue: 1 Dated: (1982) Pages: 1-26
• Author(s): D J C Carmichael
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 26 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This essay argues that the practical difficulties of dealing effectively with terrorism reveal a basic problem in the terms of conventional moral understanding.

Abstract

Specifically, current moral principles permit us to condemn any act of terrorism as categorically unjustifiable only in terms which impose crippling restrictions upon the range of justifiable counterterrorist measures. This problem arises from an abstract individualism which pervades current moral and political thought. If this abstract individualism is rejected, then it is possible to construe acts of terrorism as savage in a special sense, insofar as they reject the prior moral authority of the community to determine its own standards. On this basis, such acts may be condemned as inherently incapable of moral justification, and in terms which license vigorous counterterrorist measures. (Author abstract)