Virtue Violence

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

This course explores the use of violence as a tool of political struggle may ever be not merely necessary, but morally praiseworthy, or even obligatory. We will examine classic theoretical arguments for the morality of violence, and study several historical cases where violence was advocated on moral grounds, including the French and Russian Revolutions, the struggle against White Supremacy in the United States both before the Civil War and during the 1960s, and struggles for emancipation from colonialist regimes following World War II. Our emphasis will be on exploring the relationship between political action and morality, drawing on both philosophical argument and history.