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Thomas Nagel Rhetorical Analysis

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Thomas Nagel makes a claim that terrorism uses violence on non-combatants as a means to achieve an end. Nagel refers to the victims of terrorism as “collateral damage”, an unintended harm that come to non-combatants. He makes the point that unlike terrorism, minimizing the “collateral damage’ is different because of the difference in attitude towards the value human life. When attacking enemies in war it is justified to put innocent peoples’ life’s at risk but one must do their best to minimize the collateral damage as much as possible, even if not completely avoidable. Terrorist have no regard for human life, they see humans as expendable and as a means to an end in order to get what they want. Terrorism is considered immoral because it inflicts harm on innocent people as a means to an end. It is wrong to aim at intentionally killing non-combatants because they have done no harm, however it is morally …show more content…
In the sensitive case of terrorism and the lives of innocent non-combatants there is a blurry line between the difference of certainty, possibility, and prohibition. The small, subtle differences between certainty, possibility, and prohibition can make a huge difference in whether an action is morally permissible or morally impermissible. The certainty of harming a non-combatant is morally impermissible because it violates humans’ moral principles. When it is possible that a non-combatant is harmed the circumstance is what determines if it morally permissible or impermissible. If the situation can minimize collateral damage overall and good nature of the act outweighs the negative, then it is permissible. Prohibition is against aiming to kill non-combatants. Terrorism end goal isn’t what Nagel considers wrong, it the means they use to achieve the goal, namely targeting innocent

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