Issue #43

Abstract: Continuation of the publication of statements by classical philosophers on their definition of war and attitude towards it. This issue presents the first chapter of S. Freud’s article “Timely Reflection on War and Death.” Freud analyzes the disappointment caused by the First World War, the collapse of illusions about the high morality of cultural nations. He examines the psychological mechanisms underlying the cruelty and immorality manifested during the war, linking them to the suppression of instinctual drives in peacetime and their regression in conditions of military conflict. The duality of human nature, the ambivalence of feelings, the role of external coercion in the formation of morality, and the phenomenon of cultural hypocrisy are discussed.