Terrorism and the Question of Morality

Abstract

The thesis aims to answer the question whether terrorism can ever be morally justified. Since the very acts of terrorism are by their own nature morally reprehensible, such as indiscriminate killings of people, the justification for such acts is not always looked for. The thesis forms a cohesive framework based on the Normative theories of ethics, as well as the interpretation of those theories of various influential political and philosophical authors. Through this thesis, we strive to not only be able to evaluate the morality of terrorism, if it exists but also to highlight the importance of conducting an ethical inquiry into the subject matter at hand, and how a more thorough study of ethics in relation to terrorism can potentially help terrorism studies overcome the complexities related to the term terrorism.