Abstract

It is a terrible fact of this time, not much lessened by there having been similar facts in the past, or by the likelihood of there being more in the future, that men make uses of destructive force against persons and things, force condemned by ordinary law but directed to changing societies in certain ways. Certain of these changes in societies, although typically they are sought for themselves, may be taken to make for progress toward a certain goal, well-being for all persons without exception, all persons in whatever societies. The uses of force related in this way to the goal of well-being are of a general course political violence of the Left. My purpose in this essay is to say some things in advocacy of a certain response, in good part a sceptical one, to the general moral question of what is to be said against such violence, and what for it.