How to Think about War and Peace - by Mortimer J Adler (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Mortimer Adler writes in his introduction: "In thinking about war and peace, as in thinking about other basic practical problems, the man who brings general ideas and principles to bear upon particular problems and formulations has a unique advantage. He can make effective contact with the concrete and the immediate without losing a dispassionate vision of the universal and the timeless. He can exercise that critical detachment necessary for a thoughtful, rather than an emotional, judgement upon the conflicting policies which solicit his adherance."

How to think About War and Peace discusses immediate issues in terms of eternal principles, viewing present problems in the large perspectives that history and philosophy can provide. This book engages in a timeless project not contingenton current events, but cumulated from a continuing history of the battle between war and peace. Written in the midst of the Second World War, Adler's purpose was not to proffer how to make peace after the end of the war, but rather to instruct how to think about peace and war and how to continue this process to maintain peace, or, how to effect its establishment.

From the Back Cover

Mortimer J. Adler wrote How to Think About War and Peace in the summer of 1943, two years before an atom bomb exploded over Hiroshima and brought the Second World War to an end. Because of its relevance to our own time, Fordham University Press has reprinted Adler's important book, bringing it up to date with an introduction by John Logue. In the book, Adler writes that "anarchy" is an appropriate name for the existing system of nation states and that war will be the inevitable result. Adler urges that this system be replaced with a democratic world federation with limited but adequate powers. The government of such an organization should be concerned not only with law and order but also with justice and human rights. How to Think About War and Peace discusses immediate issues with eternal principles, viewing present problems in the larger perspective that history and philosophy can provide. This book engages in a timeless project not contingent on current events, but cumulated from a continuing history of the battle between war and peace. Written in the midst of the Second World War, Adler's purpose was not to proffer how to make peace after the end of the war, but rather, to instruct as to how to think about war and peace and how to continue this process to maintain peace.

Review Quotes

"... will help us think through how the U.N. can be restructured and empowered so that it can better achieve its noble goals."-----Robert Muller, former U.N. Assistant Secretary-General

About the Author

Mortimer J. Adler was the director of the Institute for Philosophical Research in Chicago and a member of the board of editors of the Encyclopedia Brittanica.