Negative Evidence Disarmament impossible DISARMAENT IS UNREALISTIC. ACCEPT THE NUCLEAR STATE. Nuclear Deterrence and Deontology. William H. Shaw. Ethics, Vol. 94, No. 2 (Jan, 1984), pp. 248-260. Published by The University of Chicago Press. Stable URL http://www.jstor.org/stable/2380515 To the extent that people find it dangerously unrealistic to cease deterrence and disarm unilaterally and yet are told that this is what morality dictates, they will in fact tend to ignore moral reasoning about nuclear matters altogether. The absolutist argument against deterrence is thus vulnerable to two criticisms First, the principle in question leads to counterintuitive results many will simply seethe endorsement of unilateral disarmament as a reductio of the absolutist position. Second, inlaying down amoral requirement which is so stringent that people will not in fact obey it, the absolutist only weakens peoples' allegiance to morality in general.
