ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the notion that human beings have absolute value and then generates principles of autonomy that follow from this conception of human beings. It also generates principles to serve as guidelines for the use of force in war. The chapter argues the distinction between combatants and noncombatants is the central feature of just war theory. It emphasizes that supreme principle of morality is the fundamental conviction informing the people approach to just war theory and is the motivation behind they choice of autonomy as the central concept generating the revisions to the war convention. The chapter also argues that human beings cannot be compared in this way, that it does not make sense to say that a group of three people is more absolute than one person. It asserts that the logic of the agent-centered restrictions having to do with the immunity of noncombatants follows from autonomy.
