Friday, October 21, 2005

Anscombe and Truman, Callahan and Hanson

I've been getting a number of hits from an interesting article by Gene Callahan, which is part of a debate with Victor Davis Hanson on whether Truman's use of the bomb was justifiable. He uses Anscombe's discussion in "Mr. Truman's Degree" (which I briefly discussed here, hence the link) as a starting point for thinking about the moral principles that are relevant to this discussion. I recommend the article; it's quite good, and develops Anscombe's good but somewhat brief arguments to great effect.

UPDATE: On a related note, see the interesting summary of an exchange in the Times Literary Supplement at The Leiter Reports.