Tolerance, Ethics, And Justice--Walzer Michael On International Relations

Walzer Michael is a prominent political philosopher in the contemporary U.S. His useful exploration which combines political philosophy to international politics study not only provides us a new research perspective and research approach, but also a valuable knowledge accumulation to international ethics. So, we can cheat Walzer as not only a purely political philosopher but also a prudent international political thinker. It is necessary to do a comprehensive and systemic study on his international thoughts, so that we can know well about the methods he applies political philosophy to international study and have a better understanding of Walzer's classical thoughts such as international society, international ethics and international justice.This paper is a preliminary exploration base on the consideration mentioned above and it focuses on the following aspects to clarify Walzer's international ideas.The first part summarizes the current study on Walzer's international thoughts, clarifies the methods of writing used in this thesis, and illustrates the structure of the paper.The second part investigates Waler's basic views on international society which constitutes the ideological basis for his international ideas. Walzer maintains that international society is a weak tolerance system which differs greatly from international anarchy, and tolerance is the fundamental property of international society. The existence of tolerance provides the possibility for international ethicsThe third part makes a detailed discussion about international ethics. It is international society characteristic as a weak tolerance system which helps to inform international ethics and to make a restrain on each other. Walzer firstly refute the basic views of mainstream scholars towards international ethics, and then presents a basic knowledge on international morality. His main ideas are as follows, moral reality of international ethics, the main body of ethics, mechanism and its manifestation, etc. By the way, the theory of goods as well as communitarianism are work as the philosophical basis to uphold his theory building.The fourth part explores into Walzer's justice theory which includes just war theory and international justice. When talk about just war, Walzer mainly elucidate jus ad bellum, Just in Bellum, Just Post Bellum and the theory of general justice. When it comes to international justice, Walzer illustrates the theory of global pluralism and plural justice.The part five briefly criticizes his international ideas which includes the features and the limitation of his international ideas, the devotion he contributes to IR and the implication for academic research on war and morality.The concluding part provides a briefly summary of this thesis and possible research issues and agenda in the future stemming from this study.