Rethinking Violence

Violence is a prevalent and persistent theme in all aspects of human affairs. A comprehensive understanding of violence therefore requires exposure to the research coming out from all the disciplines in the social sciences: their different methodologies, findings and insights. This book promotes the merits of an interdisciplinary agenda. By bringing together scholars of violence working in political science, political theory, international relations, economics, philosophy, sociology, psychology and public health, this book explores the complexity of violence and the interface between the empirical and normative dimensions central to this problem. The aim is to investigate the ways in which a correct understanding of this phenomenon must deal with both empirical and normative issues. There is a tendency for scholars of violence to work predominantly within the narrow parameters of their own discipline: philosophers tend to read fellow philosophers on violence; criminologists tend to rely on the work of fellow criminologists; sociologists tend to trust the writings of fellow sociologists; and so on. This book invites the reader to embrace an interdisciplinary approach towards the universal problem of violence. (178 words)

1.Introduction2.Rethinking violence Vittorio Bufacchi3.Machiavelli and the Gracchi: prudence, violence and redistribution John P. McCormick4.Violence for equality: lessons from Machiavelli John Baker5.Asymmetric war, symmetrical intentions: killing civilians in modern armed conflict Michael L. Gross6.Beyond definition: violence in a global perspective Keith Krause7.Economic sanctions and global governance: the case of Iraq Joy Gordon8.Violence: a public health perspective Ivan Perry9.Violence, integrity and education Jamil Salmi10.The so-called mindlessness of violence: violence as a pathological variant of aggression Richard Mizen

Vittorio Bufacchi teaches in the Department of Philosophy at University College Cork, Ireland. He is the author of Violence and Social Justice (2007) and editor of Violence: An Anthology (2009).