Intricate Link Between War and Human Nature

Abstract

The paper explores crucial but often neglected aspects that contribute to the causes of war. While just war requires just causes and just practices in warfare and for that reason asserts the importance of right intention, the paper observes not only the neglect of this criterion but also the predomination of wrong intention like hatred, fear, greed, and lust in the ethics of warfare. The paper's engagement with the subversive side of human nature affirms an intricate link between human nature and war. It does so by examining the infiltration of the internal orientation in the writings of Thomas Hobbes, Aron Ralby, Sigmund Freud, St. Augustine, and Edmund Husserl. Crises in internal orientation thus inadvertently contribute to the causes of war.