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Succinct overview of pacifism from the ancient world to the modern. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1998. Varieties of Pacifism: A Survey from Antiquity to the Outset of the Twentieth Century. Dallmayr 2004 provides an alternative history that focuses on Continental philosophy.īrock, Peter. Historical approaches also look at the development of peace movements, antiwar activity, and examples of nonviolent social activism in the past couple of centuries-as in Cortright 2008, Cortright 2009, and Kurlansky 2006. Other accounts range more broadly across the world’s traditions, with consideration of the roots of pacifism in Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Islam and in the work of Gandhi (see Howard 2018, Jahanbegloo 2014, and Jahanbegloo 2018, all cited under Religious Pacifism). Historical approaches to pacifism often focus exclusively on Christian pacifism, with a special emphasis on pacifist Christian denominations and more modern developments of these sectarian ideas-as in Brock 1998 and Brock and Young 1999. Pacifism has often been considered from the perspective of the history of ideas. The theoretical investigation of pacifism can be supplemented by empirical work that shows that nonviolence can be an effective force for social and political change.
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Others have defended varieties of practical pacifism, contingent pacifism, or pacifism grounded in just war theory-as well as articulating connections between pacifism and other issues: feminism, animal welfare, ecology, and theology. Others have clarified that pacifism is primarily an antiwar position that does not necessarily extend to a critique of all violence. Some have defended pacifism as a merely personal or vocational commitment. Recent discussions of pacifism have emphasized the varieties of pacifism, arguing that pacifism is not merely an absolutist moral prohibition against violence.
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In applied ethics literature, pacifists and philosophers sympathetic to pacifism such as Cheyney Ryan, Robert Holmes, and Andrew Fiala have responded in various ways to critiques of pacifism offered by Narveson and others, while also seeking to clarify and criticize “just war” theory. Contemporary discussions in the philosophical literature proliferated during and after the Vietnam War era, as conscientious objection became an issue. In more recent history, versions of pacifism have been defended by William James, Jane Addams, Bertrand Russell, and Albert Einstein. Philosophical discussions of pacifism can found in the work of Erasmus, Rousseau, and other post-Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers.
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Religious pacifism is central to ideas found in Tolstoy, Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Buddhism, Jainism, and other traditions have a similar emphasis on nonviolence. In Christianity it can be traced to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus says, “Do not resist an evil person” and “turn the other cheek” (Matthew 5:39). Pacifism has deep roots in the world’s religious traditions. As a positive commitment to nonviolence, pacifists have argued that nonviolent social activism is both beneficial and morally praiseworthy. Pacifism has been defended in a variety of ways: by appeal to religious authority, by grounding in fundamental moral principles, and by empirical claims about the negative consequences of violence and war. Or pacifism can be narrowly construed as an antiwar position understood at the level of political theory. Pacifism can extend toward a commitment to nonviolence in all aspects of life, including vegetarianism. Pacifists are also sometimes committed to nonviolence as a way of life and to a vision of peaceful and harmonious coexistence. It is often defined narrowly as opposition to war, or more broadly understood as opposition to all violence.