What if Peace Breaks Out?

In this presentation for the Aurora Philosophy Institute (API), Shishir Lakhani poses a striking existential question: What if peace breaks out?

To explore this question, Shishir examines war from multiple perspectives—economic, social, psychological, moral, and philosophical—tracing the deep and often overlapping forces that give rise to human conflict. Rather than focusing on war as a series of historical events, the talk investigates the underlying impulses, narratives, and structures that have allowed war to remain such a persistent feature of the human condition.

Throughout the presentation, Shishir weaves together these various threads to offer a broader understanding of the relationship between war and peace, challenging common assumptions and inviting reflection on whether peace is merely the absence of conflict—or something far more demanding.

Following the talk, members of the Aurora Philosophy Institute take part in an open question-and-answer session, continuing the exploration by probing ethical tensions, psychological motivations, and the practical implications of imagining a world in which peace truly “breaks out.”