Abstract
What constitutes violence, and what value may consist in aggression? There is a school of thought in political theory that puts forward the argument that violence can have a transformative social effect, serving an almost transcendent function as the hinge upon which history turns. The author contemplates several approaches to understanding the nature of violence. However dangerous these approaches to violence may be, they speak to a truth about the human condition that cannot be ignored, namely that violence may attract inasmuch as it disrupts, and that the ultimate imposition onto human freedom may be the possibility that negating the given is too uncomfortable to countenance. In this sense, an overweening emphasis on peace in social relations may be the mask of a tyranny that cannot be resisted.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Agamben, G. (1998). Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life (D. Heller-Roazen, Trans.). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Arendt, H. (1951). Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World.
Arendt, H. (1958). The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Arendt, H. (1963). Between Past and Future: Six Exercises in Political Thought. New York: Viking Press.
Arendt, H. (1963/2006). Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin.
Arendt, H. (1969). On Violence. Orlando: Harcourt.
Aristotle. (1984). Politics (C. Lord, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Benjamin, W. (1968). Theses on the philosophy of history (H. Zohn, Trans.). In H. Arendt (Ed.), Illuminations. New York: Shocken Books.
Bethune, N. (1972). The Wounds. Guelph: Alive Press.
Butler, J. (1987). Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France. New York: Columbia University Press.
Butler, J. (2010). Frames of War: When is Life Grievable? London: Verso.
Grant, G. (1991). Technology and Empire: Perspectives on North America. Toronto: Anansi.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1953). Reason in History (R. S. Hartman, Trans.). New York: Library of Liberal Arts.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1967). The Phenomenology of Mind (J. B. Baillie, Trans.). New York: Harper.
Herman, E. S., & Chomsky, N. (1988). Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media. New York: Pantheon.
Homer. (1999). Iliad (Murray, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Homer. (2000). Odyssey (S. Lombardo, Trans.). Indianapolis: Hackett.
Huang, Y. (2010). The ethics of difference in the Zhuangzi. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 78(1), 65–99.
Keohane, R., & Nye, J. (2010). Power and Interdependence (4th ed.). Toronto: Pearson. Originally published in 1977.
Koivukoski, T. (2014). The New Barbarism: Recognizing an Ethic of Difference. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Koivukoski, T., & Tabachnick, D., co-editors. (2009). Enduring Empire: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Kojève, A. (1969). Introduction to the Reading of Hegel (J. H. Nichols, Trans.). Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Morgenthau, H. J. (1948). Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace. New York: Alfred A Knopf.
Mouffe, C. (2005). On the Political. London: Routledge.
Newell, W. R. (2009). Redeeming modernity: The ascent of eros and wisdom in Hegel’s phenomenology. Interpretation, 37(1), 3–28.
Nietzsche, F. (1995). Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Kaufmann, Trans.). New York: Modern Library.
Rosen, S. (1999). “Kojève”, A Companion to Continental Philosophy. London: Wiley-Blackwell.
Roth, M. S. (1988). Knowing and History: Appropriations of Hegel in Twentieth-Century France. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Thucydides. (2009). The Peloponnesian War (M. Hammond, Trans.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Weber, M. (1961). Politics as vocation. In From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. London: Routledge.
Zizek, S. (2008). Violence: Six Sideways Reflections. New York: Picador.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Koivukoski, T. (2018). The Limits of Violence. In: Cho, C., Corkett, J., Steele, A. (eds) Exploring the Toxicity of Lateral Violence and Microaggressions. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74760-6_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-74760-6_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-74759-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-74760-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)