Overview
- Argues that the languages and concepts developed by ethicists can be a resource for speaking about moral injury in a way that can bring out the moral stakes involved for survivors of violence
- Develops Iris Murdoch's understanding of virtue so that it can be applied to real life cases
- Engages sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists researching issues of violence
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About this book
This book turns to virtue language as an important resource for understanding moral injury, a form of subjectivity where one feels they can no longer strive to be good as a result of wartime experience. Drawing specifically on Iris Murdoch’s moral philosophy, and examining the experiences of civilians during the Bosnian War (1992-5), Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon argues that current research into war and current understandings of subjectivity need new ways to articulate the moral dimension of being a subject if we are to understand how violence affects one’s moral being and development. He develops an understanding of the human person as a tensile moral subject, one that forefronts the moral challenges and vulnerability inherent in lives affected by war. With these resources, Wiinikka-Lydon argues for a moral vocabulary and images of the human as a moral being that can better articulate the experience of violence and moral injury.
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Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
Reviews
“Moral Injury and the Promise of Virtue offers original contributions to the moral injury conversation and is valuable reading for caregivers and community leaders supporting those who have suffered moral wounds of war and scholars of conflict and international relations seeking to avoid the tragedy of them occurring in the first place. It is also particularly relevant for moral theologians interested in understanding war and trauma though philosophical lenses of virtue and moral development … of moral injury.” (Darren Cronshaw, Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 35 (2), May, 2022) “This important book brings valuable interdisciplinary insights to the phenomenon of moral injury. Informed by the moral philosophy of Iris Murdoch, Wiinikka-Lydon makes a compelling and eloquently argued case for the role of virtue ethics in illuminating aspects of moral injury that are often neglected by social scientific and clinical approaches. The book will be of interest not only to scholars interested in the devastating legacies of political violence and the psychological damage inflicted by combat, but to anyone interested in gaining a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of moral harms and their transformative effects on the very texture of human subjectivity.” (Maria Antonaccio, Professor of Religion, Bucknell University, USA)
“Since coined by the legendary Jonathan Shay, ‘moral injury’ has sparked an interdisciplinary explosion of literature. Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon fills an important gap by addressing the question of what is actually ‘moral’ about ‘moral injury.’ He makes a compelling case that a virtue hermeneutic is the most adequate both for making sense of the experience of violence and for pointing toward the possibility of flourishing amidst the void. In doing so, he not only amplifies the complex phenomenon named ‘moral injury,’ but demonstrates how the language of virtue points beyond the moral to the existential.” (Aristotle Papanikolaou, Professor of Theology, Fordham University, USA)
“This book provides the first application of Iris Murdoch's moral philosophy to the field of War Studies and Trauma. Drawing on scholarship from a number of disciplines, Wiinikka-Lydon deftly argues that Murdoch's conception of virtue can not only be helpful, but vital, in providing a route to both reflectiveness and compassion: in short, to understand moral injury resulting from genocide, and to plot a path to reconciliation. A landmark in the field.” (Miles Leeson, Director of the Iris Murdoch Research Centre, University of Chichester, UK)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon is a researcher at the European Union-funded Center for Ethics at the University of Pardubice.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Moral Injury and the Promise of Virtue
Authors: Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32934-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Religion and Philosophy, Philosophy and Religion (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-32933-4Published: 26 November 2019
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-32936-5Published: 26 November 2020
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-32934-1Published: 16 November 2019
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XIV, 203
Topics: Ethics, Moral Philosophy