Terrorism: The Hunt for its Distinctive Significance

Tony Coady (University of Melbourne)

There are many philosophers and other intellectuals who these days write a lot about terrorism, particularly sub-state terrorism. Amongst them, there are quite a number who tend to be dismissive of the importance of defining “terrorism”, but nonetheless spend a lot of ink (or word-processing) on expounding what they usually call its distinctive significance, or distinctive moral significance. The combined effect of all this is, deliberately or not, to promote the threat of sub-state terrorism as a (or the) major issue of our time. This paper casts a sceptical eye on this enterprise. It examines the writings of three prominent philosophers on this theme and finds their conclusions unpersuasive.