The question of just war: a question to avoid

The essay aims at investigating how political and philosophical identities are manifested in interpreting the reality on the ground, by examining the case of the just war discourse, initially presented in Michael Walzer’s book Just and Unjust Wars. Walzer’s book is based on methodological, philosophical and meta-philosophical assumptions regarding the appropriate discussion of wars – and moral issues in general – and thus establishes a lexical foundation for thought. The present essay argues that the focus on criteria for just wars and on justifying or forbidding particular military actions according to moral criteria obfuscates consciousness and stands in the way of appropriate reading and understanding reality. This general philosophical claim is empirically examined in the light of Walzer’s statements given since Israel opened its genocidal war on Gaza, on 7th October 2023. The philosophical and political identity characterized by the methodology offered in Walzer’s famous book yielded a catastrophic blindness for very long months.