From its earliest time, human history recounts wars among its civilizations. Wars were, and still are, typically accompanied by arguments for and against waging them. Many have justified war; many have lamented its consequences. It is said that war is a part of an effort to eradicate it all together someday, or that it is an inevitable part of life. War is a difficult subject to explain. There are several reasons why they take place, most of them unjustifiable. Unjustifiable as war might be, it will never end. War has been a part of our nature since the dawn of time, an invention among the human race.
Marcus Tullius Cicero, the author of On Duties believes that there are only two ways of settling a dispute, “first by discussion; second; by physical force; and since the former is a characteristic of man, the latter the characteristic of the brute, we must …show more content…
Boswell’s essay takes aim at people who argue for the benefits of war, particularly those who claim that war is a chance for individuals to attain glory or demonstrate their bravery. He claims that if people had not become so accustomed to war as a way of life, that they would recognize how ridiculous it is. Boswell rejects the idea that any good comes from war that could compensate its direful effects. War, he claims, is followed by no benefits, particularly not to the people who fight in them. On War is a pacifist essay in which Boswell’s “...mind has expanded itself in reflections upon the horrid irrationality of war” (Boswell 11-12). Boswell has no explanation for why people persist in fighting wars, and does not hold out much hope that war will be eradicated from human life in the future as the advance of modern technology has made war worse. What once was a face-to-face contest is now the clash of opposing machines and automatic weapons, which, to Boswell, is far more irrational than it used to
Marcus Tullius Cicero, the author of On Duties believes that there are only two ways of settling a dispute, “first by discussion; second; by physical force; and since the former is a characteristic of man, the latter the characteristic of the brute, we must …show more content…
Boswell’s essay takes aim at people who argue for the benefits of war, particularly those who claim that war is a chance for individuals to attain glory or demonstrate their bravery. He claims that if people had not become so accustomed to war as a way of life, that they would recognize how ridiculous it is. Boswell rejects the idea that any good comes from war that could compensate its direful effects. War, he claims, is followed by no benefits, particularly not to the people who fight in them. On War is a pacifist essay in which Boswell’s “...mind has expanded itself in reflections upon the horrid irrationality of war” (Boswell 11-12). Boswell has no explanation for why people persist in fighting wars, and does not hold out much hope that war will be eradicated from human life in the future as the advance of modern technology has made war worse. What once was a face-to-face contest is now the clash of opposing machines and automatic weapons, which, to Boswell, is far more irrational than it used to