Transformative Pacifism: Critical Theory and Practice

Description

Defending pacifism against the charge that it is naïvely utopian, Transformative Pacifism offers a critical theory of the existing world order, and points in the direction of concrete ethical and political action. Pacifism is a transformative philosophy with wide ranging implications. It aims to transform political, social, and psychological structures. Its focus is deep and wide. It is similar to other transformative social theories: feminism, ecology, animal welfare, cosmopolitanism, human rights theory. Indeed, behind those theories is often the pacifist idea that violence, power, and domination are wrong. Pacifist theory raises consciousness about unjustifiable violence. This in turn leads to transformations in practical life. Many other books defend nonviolence and pacifism by focusing on failed justifications of war, as well as on the strategic value of nonviolence. This book begins by reviewing and accepting those sort of arguments. It then focuses on what a commitment to pacifism and nonviolence means in terms of a variety of practical issues. Pacifists reject the violent presuppositions of a society based upon power, strength, nationalism, and the system of militarized nation-states. Pacifism transforms psychological, social, political, and economic life. This book will be of interest to those who are disenchanted with ongoing violence, violent rhetoric, terrorism, wars, and the war industry. It gives anyone with pacifist sympathies reassurance: pacifists are not wrong to think that violence and war are immoral, irrational, and insane and that there is always an alternative. Title Page Copyright Page Contents Acknowledgements Preface Chapter 1: Pacifism as a Positive Theory of Human Flourishing The Just War Myth revisited Peace as the end and as the means Conclusion Chapter 2: Gandhi, Buber, and the Dream of a Great and Lasting Peace Gandhi, Buber, and the challenge of Nazism Fighting fire with fire Quenching fire with transformational pacifism Chapter 3: Pacifism in Applied Ethics: Normative Theory and the Pacific Virtues Pacifism as normative theory Beyond the Pacifism–Realism Continuum Pacifism as critical social theory The pacific virtues Applying pacifism to ‘the life issues’ Conclusion Chapter 4: Pacifism as Critical Theory The dis-ease of critical pacifism On seeing structural and other violence Normative critique The complexity of violence and harm The importance of dialectic Conclusion: Critical theory and the difficulty of pacifism Chapter 5: Pacifism, Utopia, and Human Rights Utopianism and meliorism in pacifism Utopianism in other moral theories Transformative pacifism’s avoidance of utopianism Reply to further objections Objection 2: Pacifism is inconsistent Objection 3: Pacifism is immoral Objection 4: Pacifism is bourgeois and reactionary Conclusion Chapter 6: The Peaceful Self The uncanny retreat to inner peace Traditions of inner peace Soma-aesthetics and peace-inducing practices Conclusion Chapter 7: Domestic Tranquillity The public/private distinction Tranquillity and peace at home Phenomenology of the home Care ethics: Relational and transformative justice Conclusion Chapter 8: Pacific Culture and Cultural Violence Cultural violence, violent culture, and cultures of peace The causal problem Conclusion Chapter 9: Pacifist Social and Political Philosophy Business and civil society Non-violent leadership Politics, violence, and the anarchist impulse Pacifism and the social contract Libertarianism, liberalism, and socialism Hospitality, cosmopolitanism, and liberalism Non-violent distributive justice and social peace Conclusion Chapter 10: Thinking Beyond War Epistemological considerations Five alternatives to war The pacifist problem with militarism and the military-industrial complex On a moral equivalent of war Conclusion Chapter 11: Eco-pacifism The ecological critique of war The war against animals The transformative pacifist response Comprehensive non-violence and the critique of anthropocentrism Eco-pacifism Conclusion Chapter 12: Philosophy and Practices of Peace Lying, untruth, and epistemic violence Contemplation and letting things be Conclusion Index