Māris Kūlis

This article explores the confluence of human knowledge (human research) with terrorism research and just war theory. After a brief overview of leading trends in both the world and Latvia that outlines the shortcomings of the conventional terrorism research – the analytical weakness and methodological negligence, in other words, overreliance on secondary materials, the structural linkage with the industries of security and counterinsurgency, and dependence on the government and military industries, epistemological principles of ‘ignorance’ and methodical ‘problem solving’. The article goes on to look at another strand of terrorism research – critical research of terrorism, which emphasizes the cultural, social and political context. Integrating the insights of critical theory, the critical terrorism research addresses the problem of terrorism in a broader sense, namely, from the viewpoint of human knowledge (human research), and emphasizes the emancipatory purpose (universality of human value), challenging the role of the state in terrorism research. Emphasizing the importance of human research and the principles of humanism, the article offers an insight into the just war theory that has traditionally focused on interstate wars, but currently is increasingly being reinterpreted to view terrorism in a meaningful way. As warfare changes, so does war, and terrorism likewise. Therefore, understanding of these forms of violence needs to be critically evaluated. Humanism as a recognition of human responsibility in the context of organized violence is simply a methodological framework that encourages researchers to consider human activities, including violent human characteristics.

The question about truth, experience and sharing of truth can be addressed from the viewpoint of a shared sense of community. The search for truth is related to the sensus communis and the conscience – con scientia – that is formed in the community. The sensus communis is not only a general faculty in all men, but also the sense that founds community. Thereby the knowledge is true only in front of the other. Truth reveals itself in conversation. By conversation it means that there are both someone who asks questions and someone who answers them, and that they change their roles. In order to understand each other, they have to share a common field of experience. The approach to the concept of truth as a representation of things loses its place and gives way to the understanding of truth as something where meaning as sense and truth as open and exposed concept appears in the foreground. Phenomenology reveals that community correlates and imposes a set of senses to the consciousness and conscience of the individual. This lets phenomenologists focus on life, culture and language. The truth transforms from meaning into sense. It becomes a dynamic determination of a human being.