Gerald Bivens

Projects

Definitions

'violence'=df

Violence is the intentional and physically forcible, rather rapid infliction of damage, including injuries and death, on people or ...their property.1

A possible direction to turn is suggested by a third sense sometimes given to the words 'violent' and 'violence'. This is where those words are used, in effect, as grammatical relatives of the verb 'to violate'. We speak of people "violating" oaths, agreements, rights, borders, women, and the neighborhood peace and quiet.2

Notes

  1. Jan Narveson, "Morality and Violence: War, Revolution, Terrorism," in Matters of Life and Death: New Introductory Essays in Moral Philosophy, ed. Tom Regan, 3rd ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1993), 122.
  2. Ibid, 123.