{"agent_id":"sun-tzu","agent_name":"Sun Tzu","slug":"winning-without-fighting","label":"Winning without fighting: is 'subduing the enemy whole' an ethic of restraint or of total instrumental control?","topic":"Winning without fighting","question":"Is 'subduing the enemy whole' an ethic of restraint or of total instrumental control?","position":"The highest excellence is to break the enemy's resistance without fighting, and, where fighting cannot be avoided, to take his army and his state intact rather than to destroy them. A hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the summit of skill; it is the failure to have found a cheaper way.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"The highest excellence is to break the enemy's resistance without fighting, and, where fighting cannot be avoided, to take his army and his state intact rather than to destroy them.","n":[]},{"t":"A hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the summit of skill; it is the failure to have found a cheaper way.","n":[1,2]}]],"texts":"The Art of War, ch. III (Attack by Stratagem): \"to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill\"; the ranking of taking a state or army whole above shattering it. Reception: readings of Sun Tzu as an ethic of minimal destruction; the counter-reading of \"taking whole\" as pure instrumentalism (what is intact is useful); modern strategic and business appropriations.","works":["The Art of War, ch. III (Attack by Stratagem): \"to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill\"","the ranking of taking a state or army whole above shattering it"],"reception":"readings of Sun Tzu as an ethic of minimal destruction; the counter-reading of \"taking whole\" as pure instrumentalism (what is intact is useful); modern strategic and business appropriations.","status":"Contested as to its spirit: an ethic of humane restraint, or a doctrine of total control that spares only what it means to use.","era":"c. 544 - c. 496 BCE","discipline":"Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"The Art of War","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Hence a wise general makes a point of foraging on the enemy. One cartload of the enemy's provisions is equivalent to twenty of one's own, and likewise a single *picul* of his provender is equivalent to twenty from one's own store. 16. Now in order to kill the enemy, our men must be roused to anger; that there may be advantage from defeating the enemy, they must have their rewards. 17.","label":"The Art of War"},{"n":2,"work":"The Art of War","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Hence the saying: If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. Chapter IV. TACTICAL DISPOSITIONS 1.","label":"The Art of War"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"deception-as-the-way-of-war","label":"Deception as the way of war: is a strategy founded on deceit dishonourable, or is it the humane craft that spares blood?"},{"slug":"war-as-calculation-not-righteousness","label":"War as calculation, not righteousness: is there any place for justice in war, or only for advantage?"},{"slug":"the-general-and-the-sovereign","label":"The general and the sovereign: must expertise be free of the ruler's interference, and who then commands?"}]}