3 - Objections and Responses

Summary

Chapter 3 addresses three major objections against the idea that we can consider military necessity exclusively in its material sense. First, by assessing an act’s material necessity or non-necessity, one may already be passing judgement on its quality as something desirable or undesirable, what a competent soldier should or should not do. Second, pursuing military necessities and avoiding non-necessities may mark not only a belligerent’s competence qua member of an occupational group, but also a person’s competence qua moral agent. Third, it is arguable that soldiers should refuse to deem unethical acts militarily necessary, all things considered. Consequently, only ethically competent fighting should count as truly vocationally competent fighting.