Pacifism is the view that war is never morally pe ssible. (The term is also often used to refer to the broader idea that all violence is wrong or that all killing is wrong.) Pacifists in this sense are opposed to all wars regardless of the reasons behind them. TQ.ey may or may not, however, be against an• uses of personal violence, or violence betWeen individuals. They may believe, for exam ple, that personal violence in self-defense or in law enforcement may be justified.
To make their case, pacifists may argue in a con sequentialist vein that war is never justified, be cause it always produces more bad than good. The catastrophic loss of life and the widespread destruc tion of war can never offset whatever political or material gains are achieved; riches, land, oil, or power cannot outweigh the carnage. Padfists may also rely on a nonconsequentialist argument like the following: War is always wrong because in the deliberate killing of human beings it violates a fun damental right-the right to life.This right-which may have either a religious or secular basis-is
absolute, admitting n.o exceptions.
The usual objection to the consequentialist approach is that though war is horrific and often (perhaps usually) produces more bad than good, at least sometimes the results may be good over- all. It is p•ossible, this argument goes, that waging a war could save the lives of many more people than are killed in the conflict or that fighting one small war could prevent a much larger_ n.e. A com
mon objection to the pacifist's nonconsequential ist line is that even though a person has a rigli't to life, we may be morally justified in killing him or her in self-defense if there is no other way to save our own lives. Thus sometimes killing in war is regrettable but necessary-and therefore morally permissible.