Ethics of Nonviolence

Robert L. Holmes is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Rochester, USA. His main research is in philosophy of war, the ethics of nonviolence, and contemporary moral problems. He is the author of Basic Moral Philosophy (Wadsworth, 4th edition, 2006) and On War and Morality (Princeton University Press, 1989), co-author of Philosophical Inquiry (Prentice Hall, 2nd edition, 1968), and co-editor of Nonviolence in Theory and Practice (Wadsworth, 3rd edition, 1990). He has published over 75 scholarly papers.Predrag Cicovacki is Professor of Philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross, MA, USA. He has published over fifty philosophy papers published in English, Serbian, German, Russian, Chinese, and Slovenian and is the author or editor of nine books, including Albert Schweitzer's Ethical Vision: A Sourcebook (with Introduction, Oxford University Press, 2009).

Long before Richard Rorty and Hilary Putnam praised in print the insights of William James and John Dewey, Robert Holmes shed light on the philosophical importance of the classical pragmatists. Long before Larry May and Jeff McMahan debated the merits of pacifism, just war theory, and war realism, Robert Holmes made the case for contingent pacifism. Holmes's distinctions among and insights concerning the various forms of pragmatism, pacifism, and nonviolence help debunk the easy dismissal of these views. The collected papers of Robert Holmes shed light on why those who summarily reject all forms of pragmatism, pacifism, or nonviolence do so because they continue to misrepresent these important but too often trivialized philosophical views.

• Introduction 1. John Dewey's Moral Philosophy in Contemporary Perspective 2. Consequentialism and its Consequences 3. The Limited Relevance of Analytical Ethics to the Problems of Bioethics 4. The Concept of Corporate Responsibility 5. University Neutrality and ROTC 6. The Philosophy of Political Realism in International Affairs 7. The Challenge of Nonviolence in the New World Order 8. St. Augustine and the Just War Theory 9. War, Power, and Nonviolence 10. Violence and Nonviolence 11. The Morality of Nonviolence 12. Terrorism, Violence, and Nonviolence 13. Understanding Evil from the Perspective of Nonviolence 14. Jallianwala Bagh and the Boston Tea Party: Nonviolent Roots of the Indian and American Anti-Imperialism 15. Toward a Nonviolent American Revolution 16. My (Non-)Teaching Philosophy Appendix 1: An Interview with Robert Holmes Appendix 2: Bibliography of Robert Holmes' Publications