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Yves Simon was one of the preeminent Thomistic philosophers and political theorists of the twentieth century. He saw it as a moral duty to understand human reality and to use philosophical analysis to examine contemporary politics when they embodied philosophical errors or vicious ideologies. In The Ethiopian Campaign and French Political Thought, Simon extracts principles from the 1894 Dreyfus Affair in France and applies them to Italy's 1935 invasion of Ethopia. As Simon's analysis shows, the relatively obscure events leading up to the Italian invasion had larger implications for Europe and the world, perhaps even paving the way for Vichy France's collaboration with Hitler's German New Order.
This book, available for the first time in English, offers an interesting case study of such ethical concerns as just war theory and pre-emptive war, and is of particular relevance in our modern political climate.
“Simon’s reflections on the moral hazards inherent in the use of military force ‘to civilize others’ raise important questions about the current practice by some powerful countries to bring ‘democracy’ to others through military invasion and occupation. With this reflection, Simon reminds us that truth is more important than triumph, justice is more important than force, and that a better society is possible if politics were to free itself from ‘hatred’ and be guided by an ‘interior attitude’ that values truth and justice.” —International Journal of Ethiopian Studies
Yves R. Simon (1903–1961) was the author of twenty books and a professor of philosophy at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago.