Ethics of War

A topic within Applied Ethics, itself one of 11 topics in that field and part of Philosophy.

Reading on Ethics of War

2 works

Book1625

The Rights of War and Peace

Hugo Grotius

Argues that even in war there is a law binding all nations regardless of religion, derived from reason rather than scripture, and uses it to distinguish wars and conduct within war that are just from those that are not.

link checked 17 Sept 2026

Philosophy · Applied Ethics

FreeAdvanced

Paper2004

The Ethics of Killing in War

Jeff McMahan

Argues against the standard view that combatants on both sides of a war have equal permission to kill, holding instead that a soldier fighting an unjust cause is doing wrong even if he obeys every law of war.