Second Phase of Moral Response: Above-Ground Tests of Hydrogen Bomb In the second phase of philosophical response, debate on the extinction thesis received increased attention and participants included several philosophical luminaries. During the 1950s, the earlier hope for international control of atomic weapons was displaced by the harsh realities of the Cold War: the Baruch Plan had been rejected, the hydrogen bomb had been developed, the Chinese Revolution had succeeded, and the Korean War had begun. Against this backdrop, in 1958 Bertrand Russell and Sidney Hook carried on a heated exchange with each arguing from opposite extreme positions. Russell argued nuclear war would destroy all humanity, and Hook argued Soviet communism would destroy all freedom. In the heat of their political fervor, Russell lost sight of the fact that not all of humanity would surely perish in a nuclear war, while Hook lost sight of the fact that no society, not even in the Soviet Union, was completely devoid of freedom. Nevertheless, their extreme, though untenable premises, made arguing for their conclusions rather easy. Russell, of course, was the philosopher who spoke most extensively about the nuclear war throughout this period. He made a dramatic broadcast against the hydrogen bomb for the BBC, initiated the anti-nuclear Pugwash movement, contributed to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, and in 1959 published his classic Common Sense and Nuclear Warfare.
William Gay, “Nuclear Warfare and Morality,” Global Studies Encyclopedia, eds. I.I. Mazour, A.N. Chumakov, and W.C. Gay (Moscow: Raduga, 2003), pp. 3740377. Nuclear Warfare and Morality William Gay UNC Charlotte http://www.philosophy.uncc.edu/wcgay/pubnucwarandmoral.htm This message has been scanned for malware by SurfControl plc. www.surfcontrol.com _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
