Remarks on Papers on Right and Wrong, Humanity, Terrorism

Abstract

There is a morality, a principle of right and wrong, to which we are all committed—the Principle of Humanity. The principle is simply that the right or justified thing is the one that according to the best judgement and information is the rational means, in the sense of being effective and not self-defeating, with respect to the end of getting and keeping people in general out of the bad lives—getting them into or keeping them in the related well-being instead. Humanity has a bearing on democracy and terrorism. Humanity issues arguably and explicitly in moral rights. For just one example, humanity issues in a moral right for the Palestinians in what is known as their terrorism—against neo-Zionism, as certainly distinct from Zionism. This judgement, of course, has caused some controversy—as have many of my other views. Here, I remark on comments and criticisms of my views by Mary Warnock, Paul Gilbert, Richard J. Norman, Michael Neumann, and Saul Smilansky.