This document discusses the concept of pacifism. It begins by defining pacifism as a commitment to peace and opposition to war. It then traces the origins of pacifism to Christianity and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The document goes on to distinguish between general nonviolence and a narrower anti-war position within pacifism. It also discusses debates around how pacifism relates to just war theory and whether pacifism implies a presumption against all wars. Finally, it outlines different interpretations of pacifism on a spectrum from absolute nonviolence to more focused opposition to specific wars.
This document discusses the concept of pacifism. It begins by defining pacifism as a commitment to peace and opposition to war. It then traces the origins of pacifism to Christianity and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The document goes on to distinguish between general nonviolence and a narrower anti-war position within pacifism. It also discusses debates around how pacifism relates to just war theory and whether pacifism implies a presumption against all wars. Finally, it outlines different interpretations of pacifism on a spectrum from absolute nonviolence to more focused opposition to specific wars.
This document discusses the concept of pacifism. It begins by defining pacifism as a commitment to peace and opposition to war. It then traces the origins of pacifism to Christianity and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The document goes on to distinguish between general nonviolence and a narrower anti-war position within pacifism. It also discusses debates around how pacifism relates to just war theory and whether pacifism implies a presumption against all wars. Finally, it outlines different interpretations of pacifism on a spectrum from absolute nonviolence to more focused opposition to specific wars.
This document discusses the concept of pacifism. It begins by defining pacifism as a commitment to peace and opposition to war. It then traces the origins of pacifism to Christianity and Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The document goes on to distinguish between general nonviolence and a narrower anti-war position within pacifism. It also discusses debates around how pacifism relates to just war theory and whether pacifism implies a presumption against all wars. Finally, it outlines different interpretations of pacifism on a spectrum from absolute nonviolence to more focused opposition to specific wars.
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Pacifism is a commitment to peace and opposition to war.
Our ordinary language allows a
diverse set of beliefs and commitments to be held together under the general rubric of pacifism. This article will explain the family resemblance among the variety of pacifisms. It will locate pacifism within deontological and consequentialist approaches to ethics. And it will consider and reply to objections to pacifism.
The word “pacifism” is derived from the word “pacific,” which means “peace making”Pacifism in the West appears to begin with Christianity. Perhaps the most famous use of the word pacifism is found in the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus claims that the “peacemakers” are blessed. In this passage, the Greek word eirenopoios is translated into Latin as pacifici, which means those who work for peace. The Greek eirenopoios is derived from the Greek eirênê [peace] in conjunction with poiesis .
Philosophical discussions of pacifism have clarified the concept by distinguishing the more general commitment to nonviolence from a narrower anti-war position. Pacifism is further defined through its dialectical relation to the idea of justified violence that is found in the Western just war tradition, with many locating pacifism on a continuum for assessing the morality of war that includes realism, just war theory, and pacifism. Indeed, there is an ongoing debate about the proper relation between just war theory and pacifism that focuses on the question of whether the just war theory begins with a pacifist presumption against war. Some authors (May, for example) have used the just war theory to derive a version of pacifism described as “contingent pacifism” or “just war pacifism.”
Some have tried to distinguish “pacific-ism” from pacifism, where pacific-ism is a commitment to peace and peacefulness that is not strictly opposed to war while pacifism is a more principled or absolute rejection of violence. But this distinction is not widely accepted (although Dower has employed it recently). William James used the term “pacific-ism” in 1910 to describe his rejection of militarism. The shorter term, “pacifism,” has become more common in English usage during the 20th Century to describe a variety of views that are critical of war.
Generally pacifism is thought to be a principled rejection of war and killing. Oddly enough, the term pacifism has occasionally been used to describe a pragmatic commitment to using war to create peace. Thus some who called themselves “pacifists” (for example, during the First World War) supported war as a suitable means toward peace. Richard Nixon once called himself a pacifist, even as he continued to support the Vietnam War. This perverse use of pacifism is connected to the way a term like “pacification” can be employed in military usage to describe a violent process of suppressing violence, as when an enemy territory is “pacified” by killing or disabling the enemy. While George Orwell and others have complained about such euphemistic descriptions of violence, the just war tradition does hold that war can be a suitable means to bring about peace. Despite these complications, pacifism generally connotes a commitment to making peace that rejects violent means for obtaining this end. One reason to reject violent means is the fact that might does not make right. While violence can destroy an enemy, victory does not amount to justification.
Pacifism, as it is understood in ordinary discourse today, includes a variety of commitments on a
continuum from an absolute adherence to nonviolence in all actions to a more focused or minimal sort of anti-warism. In contrast to the just war tradition, pacifism rejects war as an acceptable means for obtaining peace. Pacifists will often refuse to serve in the military. And some refuse to support political and social systems that promote war by, for example, withholding their taxes. Pacifism can be used to describe a commitment to nonviolence in one's personal life that might include the attempt to cultivate pacific virtues such as tolerance, patience, mercy, forgiveness, and love. It might also be extended to include nonviolence toward all sentient beings and thus result in a commitment to vegetarianism and what Albert Schweitzer called, “reverence for life.” And pacifism can be connected to a larger project of spiritual transformation, as in Gandhi's commitment to ahimsa or nonviolence.
