You are very, very good. So good even flattery won’t work with you. And I am not in your league. But : ) I am dim but dogged as you know. Your paradigm will not shift, mine might. When I know what it is : )
It’s intuitive.
Yes, war can be moral. I find it all but impossible to think of a single example. Including WWII. The ‘all but’ looks… dishonest, to be honest. I can’t think of a single historical example. But feel it must be, in some circumstances, the lesser of two evils. Although I cannot think of one. I can come up with scenarios I’m sure. Eventually…
Harm in self defense is incidental. Even if the harm has to be intentional for the purposes of achieving defense. Especially defense of the weak. Failure to defend by not harming could be considered immoral. That is far easier to envisage.
Pushing the boat out, the more evolved, the more moral. And the more immoral. Our capabilities are two edged, as I’ve said elsewhere. Even caring and fairness, the individualizing moral foundations, must have their limits in constrained, fluid but ethics bound situations. The group binding foundations are barely positive above break even as survival factors. They all too easily go to the bad.
I feel…
Our morality is evolving. For the better. And worse (the evils of so called democracy in particular). We know, see and feel that. And we’re not wrong, no matter how subjective. The subjective is real (Kierkegaard) and we need phenomenological tools for dealing with it (Husserl), because we’re worth it (Rogers).
So, I conclude that I’m saying that morality is full of tension, but, as Theodore Parker said, bends towards justice. Equal shares of outcome in plenty.