Cover of The Acorn
>> Go to Current Issue

The Acorn

Volume 17, Issue 2, Fall 2017

Table of Contents

Already a subscriber? - Login here
Not yet a subscriber? - Subscribe here

Browse by:



Displaying: 1-9 of 9 documents


1. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Greg Moses Editor's Introduction
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
gene sharp (1928-2018)
2. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Barry Gan Remembering Gene Sharp: Theorist of Political Nonviolence
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
3. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Jack DuVall Gene Sharp and the Twenty-First Century
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
articles
4. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Charles K. Fink Nonviolence and Tolstoy’s Hard Question
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Pacifists are often put on the defensive with cases—real or imagined—in which innocent people are threatened by violent criminals. Is it always wrong to respond to violence with violence, even in defense of the innocent? This is the “hard” question addressed in this article. I argue that it is at least permissible to maintain one’s commitment to nonviolence in such cases. This may not seem like a bold conclusion, yet pacifists are often ridiculed—sometimes as cowards, sometimes as selfish moral purists—for their refusal to use violence in defense of others. In this article, I try to show that such scorn is unjustified.
5. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Matthew Rukgaber Guns as Lies: A Kantian Criticism of the Supposed Right to Bear Arms
abstract | view |  rights & permissions | cited by
Using Kant’s argument that lies are evil and reprehensible in themselves regardless of the benefits that may result, I show that guns can be understood in similar terms. In a unique reading of Kant’s radical and often ridiculed ideas, I maintain that lies have this status because of the way they pervert our relationship to the truth and thus to morality and reason. Lies turn truth and reason into mere means to be used rather than to be obeyed. Kant believes that the result is arrogance, insincerity, and self-deception in the form of moral impurity and depravity. This gives way to the morally bankrupt logics of the passions for honor, dominance, and possession. I argue that this destruction of virtue and of our relation to the moral law can be found in our relation to guns. Guns are not just killing machines; they are deception machines. It is for that reason, regardless of the costs and benefits, that the Kantian should deny that we have any right to them.
book reviews
6. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Court Lewis Reframing Islam as a Nonviolent Force: Review of Chaiwat Satha-Anand. Nonviolence and Islamic Imperatives
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
7. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
William Gay Undermining Neoliberalism: Review of Todd May. Nonviolent Resistance: A Philosophical Introduction
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
8. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Sanjay Lal Ahimsa as a Way of Life: Review of Predrag Cicovacki and Kendy Hess, editors. Nonviolence as a Way of Life: History, Theory, and Practice
view |  rights & permissions | cited by
9. The Acorn: Volume > 17 > Issue: 2
Contributors
view |  rights & permissions | cited by