Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 138
•
Trim: 5¾ x 8¾
978-1-4422-1759-1 • Hardback • August 2013 • $100.00 • (£77.00)
978-1-4422-1760-7 • Paperback • August 2013 • $38.00 • (£30.00)
978-1-4422-1761-4 • eBook • August 2013 • $36.00 • (£30.00)
Barry L. Gan is professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Nonviolence at St. Bonaventure University. He is editor of the journal The Acorn: Journal of the Gandhi-King Society and has co-edited the anthology, Nonviolence in Theory and Practice with Robert L. Holmes.
Part I: Violence
Chapter 1: Molded by Myths
Chapter 2: The Myth of Physical Violence
The Common View
The Problem with the Common View
But Where Is the Violence in These Examples?
A Confusion?
Conclusion
Chapter 3: The Myth of Good Guys and Bad Guys
The Myth at Work
Deconstructing the Myth
Overcoming the Myth
Chapter 4: The Myth of Necessary Violence
A More Charitable Interpretation
The Difficulty with the Charitable Interpretation
The Practical Relevance of Means to Ends
Chapter 5: The Myth of Effective Punishment
Revenge
Retribution
Punishment as Educative or Rehabilitative
Deterrence
Restitution and Recompense
Conclusion
Part II: Nonviolence
Chapter 6: An Overview of Nonviolence
Chapter 7: Selective Nonviolence
Sharp’s Theory of Power
Theories of Nonviolent Strategy
Chapter 8: Toward a Theory of Comprehensive Nonviolence
The Implications of a Fuller Account of Violence
Self-Suffering and Cognitive Dissonance
The Importance of Offering a Choice to One’s Adversaries
An Example: Serbia
Some Other Examples: Egypt and Syria
Toward Comprehensive Nonviolence
Chapter 9: Comprehensive Nonviolence
How Comprehensive Nonviolence Addresses the Five Myths
Self-Suffering Can Bring Redemption
If It’s About Winning, It’s Not Nonviolence
With clarity and insight, Barry Gan has provided an engaging, illuminating, and original perspective
on the problems of violence and nonviolence. A valuable contribution to understanding these
issues, readily accessible to a general audience.
— Robert L. Holmes, University of Rochester
In this introduction to violence and nonviolence, Gan (philosophy, Bonaventure U.) focuses on subjective and intersubjective violence and examines common myths about violence, noting logical inconsistencies as well as ways to overcome their rhetorical force. These include the idea that violence is exclusively a physical act, that there are good people and bad people (i.e. and good perpetrators of violence and bad ones), that some measured violence is always necessary to prevent greater violence, and that wrongdoers must be punished and forgo their some or all of their worth as humans in the process. The second part of the text is about thinking through nonviolence as a radical practice and comprehensive strategy in light of the 'fuller account of violence' Gans is offering. He is at odds with the idea that 'ends justify the means,' but agrees in the end with Plato that 'it is better to be injured than to injure.'
— Book News, Inc.
This is the book that teachers of nonviolence have been waiting for! Barry Gan exposes five cultural myths with regard to violence, and demonstrates clearly the importance of intention, not merely action, with regard to violence. He argues his case with the precision of a careful philosopher and the pace of a good storyteller. Gan’s is an utterly honest account, and is never merely theoretical. Perhaps the most creative aspect of this book is his explication of the difference between selective nonviolence (nonviolence as a political strategy) and comprehensive nonviolence (nonviolence as a way of life). Barry Gan makes an eloquent case for comprehensive nonviolence. This will be an important book for use in classes looking at violence and nonviolence in philosophy, sociology, psychology, history, and in general education.
— Andrew Fitz-Gibbon, SUNY Cortland
- Critiques the dominant paradigm for addressing violence.
- Offers an alternative paradigm to the violent ways of thinking in contemporary society.
- Contrasts sharply two major approaches to nonviolence: nonviolent strategic action and nonviolence as a way of life
- Engaging and highly accessible for students new to philosophy.