Conscription as a Philosophical Concept of Political Justice

The overarching principle of utilitarianism is the achievement of the superior good or happiness for the greatest number. Implicit in this is a philosophy of social object lessonity, wherein individual achievements of happiness whitethorn (but do non have to) intersect with the happiness of the great number. Happiness is not defined as a ageless pitch of excitement but rather a flesh of order, an absence of pain or peril within the community. To the greater good of all, individual wishes for happiness or the go steady whitethorn just ab bug outtimes have to be subordinated. Mill does hypothesize that some in the greater community be to a greater extent suitable to determining the content of happiness for the whole, but he does not base this judgment on traditional presumptions of privilege, which for Mill whitethorn have been the monarchical-hereditary privilege. Rather, he bases it on the presumption that those who are more suited to making such determinations have carefully ameliorate and otherwise prepared themselves for the purpose. The nobility whitethorn or may not of necessity fall into this category; however, the historical mise en scene in which Mill was writing suggests that, at least in the utilitarian utopian near term, the more educated classes would of necessity also intersect with the wealthier, noble classes, which had the depth and range of experience to suit them to the tasks of governance.

Mill does not treat the issue of tipple directly, but his attit

ude toward the notion of bill of exchange as a policy of the state may be inferred from his discussion of the ideal form of the utilitarian state. For example, the discussion of the built in bed of educated classes has relevance for the issue of drawing to the extent that conscription may be perceived as an instance of the pass of the rights or comfort of the individual for the good or security system of the whole society. In addition, the judgment of the quality of such a sacrifice would be made by those doing the conscripting, not the conscriptees, with a view toward the greatest good of the whole society on whose behalf the conscription is undertaken.

Soldiers who know their country is waging an aggressive war and who are manning anti-aircraft guns in defense of a military emplacement may not in self-defense fire upon the planes of the attacked nation which is acting in selfdefense, even though the planes are over their heads and are about to bomb them. It is a soldier's responsibility to determine if his side's go is just; if he finds the issue unclear, or confusing, he may not shift the responsibility to his leading, who will certainly rank him their cause is just. The selective conscientious objector may be right in his claim that he has a moral duty not to fight; and if he is, may not another acquiescent soldier be punished or doing what it was his moral duty not to do? Thus we break to the point that some bucks stop with each of us; and we annihilate the morally elitist view that some soldiers cannot be expected to appreciate for themselves . . . Why, precisely, is one specially absolved of responsibility for actions when these are performed jointly with others from political motives under the direction or orders of political leaders? (Nozick, 1974, p. 100).

Rawls's objection to utilitarian idealism is that "there seem to be no objective grounds in the initial (societyformative] bunk for assuming that one has an equal chance of turning out to be any
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