Understanding Peace within Contemporary Moral Theory

Abstract

In this essay, I continue Nicholas Wolterstorff’s work of developing a rights-based theory of ethics called eireneism, which maintains the good life only occurs when justice—as a moral state of affairs where agents enjoy the goods to which they have a right—is achieved. As a result, justice is eirenē (the Greek word for peace). In the process of developing eireneism I explain how eirenē differs from other conceptions of peace, and I offer several interpretive arguments for how best to understand eireneism in relation to better-known competing ethical theories, like utilitarianism, virtue ethics, duty ethics, and care ethics.