On the Violence of Systemic Violence

Radical Philosophy Review 15 (1):33-51 (2012)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper questions the extension of the common notion of violence, i.e., “subjective violence,” involving the intentional use of force to inflict injury or damage, towards social injustice as “systemic violence.” Systemic violence is altogether unlike subjective violence and the work of Slavoj Žižek illustrates that conceptual obfuscation in this regard may lead to an overly broad and facile justification of revolutionary violence as counter-violence to systemic violence, appealing to the ethics of self-defense. I argue that revolutionary violence is only justified to counter subjective violence inflicted or organized by the state. Thus I reject in conclusion Žižek’s further defense of revolutionary violence as retributive and as “shock therapy” necessary to disrupt the old society.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Violence and the origins of legislative authority.David Allinson - 2009 - Emergent Australasian Philosophers 2 (1):1-16.
Žižek, Louise Michel et la violence objective du capitalisme.B. Vidaillet - 2011 - International Journal of Žižek Studies 5 (3):1-22.
Lacan sive Althusser on Violence.Won Choi - 2016 - International Journal of Žižek Studies 10 (2).
Language, Violence and non-violence.Slavoj Žižek - 2008 - International Journal of Žižek Studies 2 (3).
On justifying violence.Kai Nielsen - 1981 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 24 (1):21 – 57.
Expositions of Sacrificial Logic: Girard, Žižek, and Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men.Benjamin Barber - 2013 - Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis, and Culture 20:163-179.
The practice of linguistic nonviolence.William C. Gay - 1998 - Peace Review 10 (4):545-547.
Deciding on Violence.Bevan Catley & Campbell Jones - 2002 - Philosophy of Management 2 (1):23-32.

Analytics

Added to PP
2013-10-31

Downloads
53 (#268,373)

6 months
5 (#246,492)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Harry van der Linden
Butler University

Citations of this work

Just War, Cyber War, and the Concept of Violence.Christopher J. Finlay - 2018 - Philosophy and Technology 31 (3):357-377.
Climate Change Mitigation and the U.N. Security Council: A Just War Analysis.Harry van der Linden - 2019 - In Jennifer Kling (ed.), Pacifism, Politics, and Feminism. Leiden: Brill. pp. 117-136.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references