Putting on the Brakes

Well, my thesis is turned in, Spring Break has started, and I’m back at home with my parents and the dog. Because I only have scheduled classes on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was able to return home on Thursday, so I have an extra-long last Spring Break. The end is coming up quick, but right now, I’m just enjoying the moment: watching movies, taking the dog running, and working on my other blog (be sure to check out my posts from this week!)

Alright, I promised I would explain what my thesis was about. When one of my college interviewers asked me what I would write my thesis on, if I could choose anything, I said “philosophy, because it connects everything.” And true to form, my thesis covers as many topics as I could fit in. I’m completing a Joint Concentration (Double Major) in Philosophy and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC, aka Middle Eastern Studies), so my thesis needed to combine the two of them. But the “Studies” part of Middle Eastern Studies covers a pretty wide range in and of itself of sociology, anthropology, history, foreign language, economics, government, etc. Besides which, as a future Naval officer, I was writing my thesis focusing on US involvement in the Middle East, which also included military policy and International Law in the mix.

So a lot of my thesis was just trying to pull all of that together, and make it somewhat reflect the image I had in my head (I nearly always have my epiphanies in images, which makes them extremely hard to explain.) All of this to say that to be honest, I still haven’t found a way to explain what my thesis is about. But I’m going to try.

There are two ways to look at my thesis – from specific to general, and from general to specific. Let’s start from specific. My specific focus is the Doctrine of Double Effect (DDE) and US policy with regard to ISIS. DDE is a set of guidelines developed to determine when collateral damage (particularly civilian deaths) is acceptable in wartime. The “double effect” referred to is the unintended bad effect that accompanies the desirable effect. So I was looking at Israeli policy with regard to DDE and terrorism and trying to determine a set of guidelines for the US.

However, in order to determine guidelines, we have to ask the larger question: how do we go about deciding what’s ethical in wartime? This isn’t only a question for the US; it’s a question for International Law. We don’t all have one ethical system or worldview; how do we agree on ethics? The popular opinion today is that worldview doesn’t matter – religion, philosophy, and etc. don’t matter. We all pretty much agree on what’s right and wrong; religion and culture are just window-dressing we add on afterwards.

In my opinion, this is backwards. Out moralities come from our beliefs about the world. Without God, I have no reason for believing that there is a right or a wrong; if we believe in different gods or different religions, we are going to come to different conclusions about things like abortion, homosexuality, and (as it turns out) the Doctrine of Double Effect. So we can’t legislate these internationally; we can’t agree on them, and we can’t force other countries to agree with us on them. So we have to let each culture work from its own assumptions about the universe to come up with its own guidelines.

Then we return to the specifics and try to figure out, given the United States’ assumptions about the purpose of government and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, what sorts of collateral damage are acceptable. This, ostensibly, was the purpose of my thesis, but I was much more interested in the larger point I’ve pointed out above. It’s not a very popular view in academia at the moment, but it’s more popular in the philosophy and cultural studies departments than elsewhere, as one would expect.

Okay, so that’s my 95-page thesis summed up very generally in a few paragraphs – hopefully it made sense. I’ll find out if the longer version did when I have my oral examination board in a couple weeks. I hope everyone has a lovely Spring Break – check out my blog! – and I’ll see many of you soon!

The ice on Fresh Pond is just a memory now.

 My thesis! In triplicate:

Every year about this time, the Harvard SHARC (Sexual Health and Relationship Counselors) hang condoms and lubricant on my door. Yay college.

 I just really like taking pictures of Fresh Pond.

 The climate's a little different in Texas, but I love them both.

 Breakfast at IHOP with my parents!

 Tikvah is still as adorable as ever.

 He wanted to drive.

 We tried to take a selfie, but he's very easily distracted.

 Playing hide-and-seek at the dog park: