Today, we experience violence in all spheres of our life. This undeniable fact leads us to ask the following questions. What is violence Why does it occur Is man by nature violent Is violence an evil, and a necessary evil Will the coming century b...
Today, we experience violence in all spheres of our life. This undeniable fact leads us to ask the following questions. What is violence Why does it occur Is man by nature violent Is violence an evil, and a necessary evil Will the coming century be characterized as the century of violence Is it possible to prevail in the fight against violence This study represents a portion of a collective research undertaken for finding answers to the questions such as above. This study, which forms the first half of the research, treats the major theories of violence of the West. The remaining half will treat violence in our society systematically under separate headings.
Violence is from the Latin violentia which is derived from vis, the force. Vis is derived from the Greek word, bia, meaning ‘force' or ‘power'. Violentia denotes: 1. great force 2. excessive force 3. constraint. The concept of violence is connected with that of coercion coactio in a special manner because an act of violence is always an instance of acts of coercion. The concept of act of violence, however, is deficient as a definition of act of violence for two reasons: 1. Not all acts of coercion against the nature and the natural tendency of things and against the human voluntary act are acts of violence; 2. there are many kinds of acts of violence which are not acts of coercion against them. For example, government of public authority, enforcement of laws, imposition of punishments, violent acts of self-defence are not necessarily acts of violence. Also, many forms of acts of violence, for example, strike, revolution, war, etc. are not directly opposed to the human voluntary acts.
An act of use of force may not conform to the right reason in various ways depending on the object against which the force is used. Therefore, acts of violence may be distinguished according to the variety of objects against which the force is used: 1. human natural desires or oder of cognitive and appetitive powers in man 2. human voluntary act 3. dignity and rights of human person 4. public authority 5. law, social order and the common good 6. distributive or commutative justice, including vindicative or retributive justice 7. communal, national or international order 8. natural law, divine law and eternal law. Finally, acts of violence may be distinguished in the broadest terms as against oneself, against others, social authority and order divine providence and government of the world.
Above discussion concerning the concept of violence and definitions of act of violence amply reveals that violence is a secondary concept and is a negative concept. But then it is also true that the very scope and intensity of violence in our times demand a systematic research on the subject of violence.
The diverse forms of violence in our society are derivative of certain characteristics of the present-day Western culture, or, at least, closely related to them. Therefore, a proper understanding of these forms of violence in our society demands an examination of the essence and attributes of the present-day Western culture. That we cannot eliminate at once violence in our society is obvious. But if we neglect to take drastic measures now to curb and check it, it is certain that we shall lose the very rational ground of our meaningful personal life and our just social life. In order to combat violence of our society, what is needed is a general and collective war against the very essence of violence of our society and its proper attributes rather than battles against its particular forms. Even the fight against physical violence is not effective by means of physical and institutional devices alone. Consequently, the war against violence in our society must be waged on many levels such as educational, social and cultural.