University of Groningen
Terrorism and the Good Life van Elk, Noreen Josefa
IMPORTANT NOTE: You are advised to consult the publisher's version (publisher's PDF) if you wish to cite from it. Please check the document version below.
Document Version
Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record
Publication date: 2019
Link to publication in University of Groningen/UMCG research database
Citation for published version (APA):
van Elk, N. J. (2019). Terrorism and the Good Life: a Virtue Ethical Approach to Moral and Political Questions of Terrorism and Counterterrorism. University of Groningen.
Copyright
Other than for strictly personal use, it is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons).
Take-down policy
If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim.
Downloaded from the University of Groningen/UMCG research database (Pure): http://www.rug.nl/research/portal. For technical reasons the number of authors shown on this cover page is limited to 10 maximum.
Propositions associated with the thesis
“Terrorism and the Good Life. A Virtue Ethical Approach to Moral and Political Questions of Terrorism and Counterterrorism”
By Noreen Josefa van Elk
1. The definition of terrorism and its moral assessment are intertwined: definitional problems impede comprehensive moral evaluation of terrorism (this thesis).
2. The “taboo” on reflecting on moral questions of terrorism obstructs a comprehensive understanding of terrorism’s (moral) nature (this thesis).
3. The disagreement on the moral nature of terrorism has far-reaching consequences for the moral assessment and conceptualization of counterterrorism action (this thesis).
4. Terrorism constitutes a moral challenge in a twofold way: the occurrence of terrorism goes along with manifold moral questions and simultaneously challenges moral philosophy in a more profound way from the bottom-up (this thesis).
5. An ethics of terrorism and counterterrorism should not be limited to the discussion of singular moral questions, but instead also requires meta-ethical reflection on the most suitable framework for dealing with those questions (this thesis).
6. Prevalent and common ethical theories are not the best equipped for tackling the complex moral problem of terrorism and counterterrorism (this thesis).
7. “The resources of most modern moral philosophy are not well adjusted to the modern world” (Bernhard Williams).
8. Virtue ethics show that people are moved by much more than questions of “rightness” or “duty” when making moral decisions (this thesis).
9. If human flourishing is an interest of every human being, preserving and protecting the ability to live a good life should be the main interest of a political community (this thesis).
10. “A political conception of justice must presuppose some answer to the moral
questions it purports to bracket, at least where grave moral questions are concerned. In such cases as these, the priority of the right over the good cannot be sustained” (Michael J. Sandel).
