After the Terror [Paperback]

Ted Honderich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2004

Ted Honderich investigates the morality of the September 11th attacks and what terrorism tells us about ourselves and our obligations. Did we have a responsibility for what took place? Did we respond to it as we should have? What are we to do now? After the Terror inquires into the "natural fact" of morality and the worked-out moralities of philosophers. It reaches to the moral core of our lives.

Honderich writes, "We can be held partly responsible for the 3,000 deaths at the twin towers and at the Pentagon. We are rightly to be held responsible along with the killers. We share the guilt. Those who condemn us have a reason to do so. Did we bring the killing at the twin towers on ourselves? Did we have it coming? Those offensive questions, and their offensive, but affirmative answer, do contain a truth."

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

In these bad times, when many intellectuals have become the spear-carriers of the new order, reading the words of Ted Honderich is a rare delight. This uncompromising and courageous philosopher continues the dissenting tradition of Bertrand Russell and Jean-Paul Sartre, more needed now than ever before.

(Tariq Ali ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Ted Honderich has been the Grote Professor of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London, and visiting professor at Yale University, the Graduate Center at CUNY, and Brooklyn College. His books include Philosopher: A Kind of Life; The Oxford Companion to Philosophy; and The Supposed Justifications.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press (February 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773527346
• ISBN-13: 978-0773527348
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,387,212 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 100 watt bulb in a 20 watt culture, February 2, 2003

By 

Douglas Doepke (Claremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: After the Terror (Hardcover)

Few academic philosophers have the guts or the sensitivity of Ted Honderich. For a profession whose Anglo-American branch proudly removed itself from mundane affairs like international politics and the fate of peoples, this little work stands in stark exception. No publication I know captures the background sense of moral reasoning shared by today's international progressive movement better than this one. Nor are the subtle but deadly shades of culpability among dominant western societies more searchingly revealed. Sure, there is material to gainsay, although the tone is often more probing than assertorial. His thrust, however, is dead-on and should help rouse an irrelevant profession from its long ideological slumber. For those willing to confront the agonizing realities of our age at eye-level, including terrorism, Honderich's remains an indispensible and provocative tool.

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If CNN does not limit your mind., October 27, 2002

By 

George (Toronto, Ontartio Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After the Terror (Hardcover)

After Sep 11 everyone stopped asking why this happened to us, and started concentrating on the revenge war. This book shades a light on a reality that the US Media/Government tries hard to hide.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Moral philosopher thinks about terrorism, October 20, 2009

By 

Edward Mariyani-Squire (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: After the Terror (Paperback)

Looks at the moral issues around terrorism. Deals with questions like: what is to count as a 'good life'? Why is terrorism morally wrong? To what extent are Western countries materially and morally responsible for the terrorism they experience? Under what conditions is terrorism morally justified? What kind of opposition to one's own state is morally justified? Honderich is a consequentialist: his "principle of humanity" is that we should attempt to drag people out of "bad lives".