Ethics of conflicts, lessons from Ibn Khaldûn’s Muqaddima

Abstract

Ibn Khaldûn (1332-1406) is a statesman and an historian of conflicts and political changes in the Middle East and North Africa region. He wrote, in his Muqaddima, a large analysis of the decay of the arabic civilization.« Ethics of the Just » are very well explained as the rule of Law and the application of rational sciences to tradition. This leads him to condemn « Ethics of the Good », as a philosophy calculating its own happiness. Nowadays, conflicts still reflect this dualism with new forms in eudemonism such as utilitarianism. His theory of political change and conflicts is still powerfull: economic development leads to the destruction of dynasties, the rise of cities and nation states ; the main factor of this evolution , being Asabiya, specific social capital. « An empire… seldom outlives three generations » ; the political power goes from positive values to negative values, through a maximum. According Ibn Khaldûn, this change explains the crisis of arabic civilization, from nomadic to residential forms. This « three stages » development theory may enlighten actual economic evolution and conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa Region.