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The Acorn

Volume 19, Issue 1, Spring 2019
Gandhi 150

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Displaying: 1-10 of 10 documents


1. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Greg Moses, Sanjay Lal From Canons of Peace to Shoots of Resistance: Editors' Introduction
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features
2. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Douglas Allen Mahatma Gandhi’s Philosophy of Nonviolence and Truth: The Key Values and Concepts for Gandhi 150 and the Future
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In commemoration of the 150th birthday of M. K. ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi, Douglas Allen, author of Gandhi After 9/11, presents an overview of Gandhi’s philosophy focused on two key values or concepts: Truth (Satya) and Nonviolence (Ahimsa). The presentation is offered as an alternative to non-Gandhians, anti-Gandhians, or reactionary Gandhians who often over-idealized the man and his philosophy. With respect to Ahimsa or Nonviolence, it may be easy to see how the value works against overt, physical violence. However, for Gandhi such examples are only a small part of violence overall. For Gandhi, violence and nonviolence are multidimensional, encompassing our personal ego-driven desires and our widespread economic exploitations. Each dimension of violence or nonviolence is both causal and conditioning, beginning with the experiences of children. Ahimsa should therefore be approached as relational and interconnected. Gandhi approaches the structural violence of the status quo by insisting upon transformative structural nonviolence. Gandhi’s approach to Truth or Satya requires a distinction between Absolute Truth and relative truth. Although Gandhi works with an experiential knowledge of Absolute Truth, he was not an absolutist. Gandhi’s primary focus was upon relative truth, which yields temporary and imperfect ‘glimpses’ of the absolute. In relations with others, we seek kinship with bearers of relative truth. This is the significance of Gandhi’s claim that means and ends are intertwined. With others we seek mutual discovery of relative truths generating greater relative truth. Gandhi’s well known Absolute Nonviolence may prevent us from apprehending its relationship to relative transformations in contextual situations.
3. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Court D. Lewis, Gregory L. Bock, David Boersema, Jennifer Kling Author Court D. Lewis Meets Critics on Repentance and the Right to Forgiveness
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Court D. Lewis, author of Repentance and the Right to Forgiveness, presents a rights-based theory of ethics grounded in eirenéism, a needs-based theory of rights (inspired by Nicholas Wolterstorff) that seeks peaceful flourishing for all moral agents. This approach creates a moral relationship between victims and wrongdoers such that wrongdoers owe victims compensatory obligations. However, one further result is that wrongdoers may be owed forgiveness by victims. This leads to the “repugnant implication” that victims may be wrongdoers who do not forgive. Author Lewis addresses the “repugnant implication” by showing that victims are obligated to work toward forgiveness, if not forgiveness itself. Critic Gregory L. Bock argues that victims are not the only ones who can forgive, that the personal dimensions of forgiveness are overlooked, and that the force of the “repugnancy implication” may be questioned. Instead of rights-based eirenéism, Bock supports a virtue ethics framework. Instead of rights-based eirenéism, Bock encourages virtue ethics. Critic David Boersema raises questions about the binding nature of relationships, the dependency of flourishing upon forgiveness, and the nature of needs or rights. Boersema also questions the wisdom of a rights-based approach to forgiveness. Critic Jennifer Kling asks whether a rights-based approach is necessary to ground obligations to meet the needs of others: why not an ethics of care? If a rights-based approach is taken, perhaps a wrongdoer is obligated to not make forgiveness a life good. By disengaging this obligation, we avoid constraining a victim’s work toward forgiveness, especially when the wrongdoing is oppressive. Author Lewis responds to these objections.
reviews
4. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Matthew Rukgaber Peace and the Unity of Kant’s Critical Project: Review of Philip J. Rossi, The Ethical Commonwealth in History: Peace-making as the Moral Vocation of Humanity
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5. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Charles K. Fink Acting Out the Kingdom of God: Review of Predrag Cicovacki and Heidi Nada Grek, editors, Tolstoy and Spirituality
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6. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Marilyn Fischer Hull House, the Pullman Strike, and Tolstoy: Documenting the Work of Jane Addams: Review of Mary Lynn McCree Bryan, Maree de Angury, and Ellen Skerrett, editors, The Selected Papers of Jane Addams, Volume III: Creating Hull-House and an International Presence, 1889–1900
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7. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Paula Smithka Resisting the Many Faces of Violence: Review of Jennifer Kling, editor, Pacifism, Politics, and Feminism: Intersections and Innovations
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8. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Walter Kendall A New Story for a Politics of Belonging: Review of George Monbiot, Out of the Wreckage: A New Politics for an Age of Crisis
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9. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Court Lewis The Gift of Kwe: A Present of Radical Resurgence: Review of Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom Through Radical Resistance
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10. The Acorn: Volume > 19 > Issue: 1
Contributors
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