ABSTRACT

The problem-solver, the "consequentialist" ethicist, even the postmodern pragmatist, seem to have a hard time grasping a truly "anticonsequentialist" morality. The modem preoccupation with "life" as the sole source of vitality can be related to an evident longing to reduce "morality" to a matter of basic mechanics, to simple ends-means calculations, to "rational" problem-solving: pursue the necessary, avoid the contingent. Homer seems already to have anticipated the modern deconstructionist view of Western morality. He already realizes that a fully rounded, self-internalized, truly anticonsequentialist moral code is an impossibility. Homer seems to know that he cannot discursively change his heroes' angry characters, cannot alter their bloodthirsty behaviors through syllogistic suasion. Michael Walzer discusses hell extensively in order to challenge the Clausewitzian sentiment that all "war is hell" allegedly because war is limitless in its potential for ruthlessness and escalating cruelties.