Walzer’s Conception of War and the Need for Radicalism

The text asks the question whether political radicalism is indispensable in the conceptualization of an ongoing war, and moreover is it morally righteous to think of war in a non-radical way. The article does that with the help of one of the most prominent theorists of war, Michael Walzer. The text is a kind of a critique of his conceptions. Besides being an inventor of the modern concept of „just war“, Walzer is also a rightwing anti-radical due to his path of philosophical development as a whole. His early work analyses the Book of Exodus as a source of all radical politics and finds a new interpretation of the story from the Scripture. The text presents it in parallel with a short story by William Faulkner – „Go Down, Moses“. Then the author examines Walzer’s idea of „distributive justice“ and juxtaposes it with some Bulgarian theoretical examples. Walzer’s doctrine of „just war“ is discussed with reference to the views of Hannah Arendt on violence and war. Finally, the text opposes some recent reactions to the war in Ukraine.