PHILOSOPHY AND MORAL REALITY OF WAR

The article continues the analysis proposed by R. Brague on the “consequences of the experience of war for philosophers” and “the influence of such experience on their way of thinking.” The author suggests distinguishing between different experiences of war based on the nature of conflicts and the ways of participating in them. Furthermore, the article argues that philosophical thought can be influenced not only by firsthand experiences of war — whether as a soldier or a civilian affected by combat — but also by the discovery, through war, of unexpected aspects of human life or history that challenge certain philosophical theories, modes of philosophizing, or philosophy as a whole. The article examines the reactions of 20th century French philosophers to war, particularly those who sought to summarize the experience of specific conflicts and conceptualize war as a reality that challenged them. Special attention is given to the differing perceptions of World War I and World War II by successive generations of philosophers, as illustrated by Alain’s book Mars: Or, The Truth about War (1921) and M. Merleau-Ponty’s article “The War Has Taken Place” (1945). The study also includes a comparative analysis of how World War II shaped the intellectual trajectories of M. Merleau-Ponty and R. Aron. The author argues that J. Baudrillard’s book The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1991) continues the tradition of “postwar” texts by French philosophers, summarizing the consequences of the Cold War and conceptualizing the nature of new forms of warfare. Building on these analyses, the author demonstrates that one of the consequences of the transformation of warfare following the end of the Cold War has been the gradual disappearance of what M. Walzer termed the “moral reality of war,” a characteristic feature of 20th century conflicts. However, with the resurgence of full-scale and prolonged interstate war due to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, this moral reality is being revived — posing a challenge, at the very least, those philosophers who have gained lived experience of this war.