Aristotle, Epicurus, Morgenthau and the Political Ethics of the Lesser Evil

Abstract

This article explores one of the key themes of Hans J. Morgenthau's moral theory, the concept of the lesser evil. Morgenthau developed this concept by reference to classical political theory, especially the articulation of the lesser evil found in Aristotle and Epicurus. The article begins by differentiating Morgenthau's work from that of E. H. Carr, whom he regards as engaged in a Quixotic quest to provide Machiavellism with greater ethical purpose. The article also contrasts the ethics of the lesser evil with Kantian ethics. Morgenthau places the lesser evil in the context of a modernity that has lost the capacity to think about the relationship between politics and morality and stresses the importance of coming to grips with the existential demands of love and power. Finally, the article argues that despite the ubiquity of evil, the existence of the lesser evil gives rise to the development of specifically political virtues such as prudence and moderation which raise the possibility of moral politics beyond mere expedience.Keywords: Aristotle, Epicurus, ethics, evil, Morgenthau, political theoryThe Aristotelian truth that man is a political animal is true forever; the truths of the natural sciences are true only until other truths have supplanted them. (Morgenthau 1946: 220) In an era characterised by large-scale terrorist attacks and military conflict, war and the use of force have once again become the central questions of global politics. In such challenging times questions about the relationship between power and morality inevitably rise once more to the fore. What is the nature of this relationship and how can one even begin to make moral claims in

Hans Morgenthau, Realist Theory of International Leadership, and the Future of Global Order

“…Morgenthau underscored, under the influence of Aristotle, ''practical wisdom'' (''prudence''), ''foresight'', ''political art'', and moral ''determination'' as opposed to akrasia (see Brown 2012;Lang 2007;Molloy 2009;Ringmar 2014, 14). He followed the Greek Tragedians to stress the importance of ''decisiveness'' and ''humility'', warning against the danger of hubris (Morgenthau 1962a(Morgenthau , 326, 1978Lebow 2003Lebow , 2009.…”

Unlearning modernity: A realist method for critical international relations?

“…Lang, 2007;Molloy, 2009 Morgenthau's (2004: 28, 36-7, 65-6, 78, 84) understanding of the nation-state as a social construct. Focusing on this aspect certainly was spurred by domestic developments in the United States, like McCarthyism, that threatened the political realm, as it undermined democracy, but also by international developments, like the Cold War, in whose course the American liberal zeal turned into hubris and led to the Vietnam War.…”

Pragmatism, Realism and the ethics of crisis and transformation in international relations

“…1 For other early critical reactions to Carr's work, see Wilson (1998;. 2 Although mentioned periodically in the excellent studies provided by Haslam (1999), Jones (1998), Cox (2000Cox ( , 2001, Wilson (1998Wilson ( , 2000Wilson ( , 2001) the most developed treatments of Carr's ethics are to be found in Rich (2000) and Molloy (2008Molloy ( , 2013. Haslam's (1999) biography and the essays in Cox (2000) are particularly useful in terms of providing the wider context of Carr's development as a thinker.…”

“…For good treatments of this phase of Carr's career see the following:(Suganami 1989;Wilson 1996;Linklater 1997;Rich 2000;Molloy 2006;Kenealy and Kostagiannis 2013).…”

“…It is organized around the themes of order, justice and change, the central dimensions of politics for all three thinkers'.17 Carr's only significant deployment of tragedy is in a passage of The Twenty Years' Crisis (p. 87) where he refers to 'the complexity, the fascination and the tragedy of all political life', that is, that the cycle of utopian innovation, followed by its degeneration and the realist unmasking of the power dynamics that operate under the utopian veneer, will continue in perpetuity. In the final chapter of The Twenty Years' Crisis, refers to the collapse of the post-WW1 peace settlement and the wider eclipse of the nineteenth century liberal mentality as tragedies of this kind.18 In addition toLebow (2003), seeMolloy (2009) on the issue of the ubiquity of evil and the morality of the lesser evil in Morgenthau.…”