William H. Shaw, “Utilitarianism and the Ethics of War” (Routledge, 2016)
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Hello. Thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy. I'm Robert Talese. I'm professor of philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I co-host the program with Carrie Figder, who's Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Iowa. My guest today is William H. Shaw. He is the author of a fantastic new book titled Utilitarianism and the Ethics of War. It's just been published by Routledge. As its title suggests, Bill's new book develops a utilitarian analysis of the central issues concerning the morality of war. ranging from questions about the permissibility of going to war and separate questions concerning the moral conduct of soldiers in states once war has broken out. Now, as some listeners will no doubt already know, a lot of the current literature on the morality of war has a decidedly non-utilitarian cast.
And in fact, many ethicists who take up questions about war tend to be overtly anti-utilitarian. That is, the standard line often is that utilitarianism is the last moral theory one should want to go to when thinking about questions of war. And it's this aspect of the contemporary discussion of these issues that makes Bill Shaw's book especially interesting. Again, it's a utilitarian analysis of the moral questions arising in war. So there's a lot to talk about, as there usually is.
Who is the guest and what is the central thesis of *Utilitarianism and the Ethics of War*?
And before we get into those details, we'll begin what we usually do. Let's greet our guest. Hi, Bill. Hi, Bob. How are you doing today? I'm doing fine. It's nice to be talking with you. Oh, it's great to be talking with you. And thanks for joining us on New Books and Philosophy. Oh, I'm flattered to be here. Great. So before we get into talking about utilitarianism and the ethics of war... Why don't you share a little bit about yourself? Why don't you tell us about yourself?
Well, I fell into philosophy in college like a lot of professors of philosophy. I think not for really exciting reasons, but I like the image. I didn't know much about philosophy, but I like the idea of this being the field that thinks about the big questions and I even smoked a pipe for about two months because I thought that was appropriate for, you know, a philosophy major. But even then, I like philosophy, but I thought I wanted to be a lawyer. And I worked in a law office, except a couple of law schools. I ended up working in the law office for a couple of years and decided it really wasn't for me. And so I thought I would go to graduate school and. I had a really negative image about graduate school when I was undergraduate.
Graduate students were always complaining about how terrible graduate school was. And so I thought maybe I'd just go for master's. But then I was accepted to do a program at the London School of Economics.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the episode’s introductory focus and who is sponsoring it?
0:00–3:00
2
Who is the guest and what is the central thesis of *Utilitarianism and the Ethics of War*?
3:00–10:50
3
How did William Shaw’s academic background lead him to write a utilitarian analysis of war?
10:50–22:45
4
What is the Utilitarian War Principle (UWP) and how does it determine when war is permissible?
22:45–35:43
5
How does Shaw connect the UWP to traditional just‑war criteria like legitimate authority and last resort?
35:43–49:35
6
What does utilitarianism say about the moral equality of combatants in a just versus an unjust war?
49:35–1:02:16
7
How do the received rules of war (necessity, proportionality, non‑combatant immunity) fit into a utilitarian framework?
1:02:16–1:04:12
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PJ DiPietro, "Sideways Selves Travesti and Jotería, "Struggles Across the Américas" (U Texas Press, 2025)