1906 / Stanford

William James Proposes the Moral Equivalent of War

Tags:: 1900s,; morality,; speeches,; Stanford,; William James

It would be simply preposterous if the only force that could work ideals of honor and standards of efficiency into English or American natures should be the fear of being killed by the Germans or the Japanese. Great indeed is fear; but it is not, as our military enthusiasts believe and try to make us believe, the only stimulus known for awakening the higher ranges of men’s spiritual energy. The amount of alteration in public opinion which my utopia postulates is vastly less than the difference between the mentality of those black warriors who pursued Stanley’s party on the Congo with their cannibal war cry of “Meat! Meat!” and that of the “general staff” of any civilized nation. History has seen the latter interval bridged over: The former one can be bridged over much more easily.

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My interests lie in pursuing a humane, non-militaristic,
ethical economic system in our world.

Posted by William Moorer on Sun 23 Aug 2009

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Published In

States of War

About the Text

From a lecture delivered at Stanford University during James' year as a visiting scholar on leave from Harvard. The brother of the novelist Henry James, William was among the most eminent of America's late nineteenth-century philosophers.

The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools.