Is Peace Possible? The ethical and political tradition of pacifism

Ministrante: Profa. Sara Lagi (Universitá degli Studi di Torino)

Idioma em que o curso será ministrado: Inglês

Objetivo: The course starts from the question posed in the title: Is Peace Possible? Far from being a naive or merely idealist kind of question, this course aims to reflect on how the problem of peace has been addressed by pacifism. The latter is often depicted as a mere rejection of violence and war. This course will show how such a view is reductive and simplistic, by arguing that pacifism has a strong normative status and proposes peaceful conflict solutions, assuming the consciousness of human, social and political complexity. 
More concretely, in order to critically address pacifism, the course will focus on three relevant pacifist movements:  institutional pacifism, absolute pacifism and ecological pacifism. 
1. Institutional pacifism interprets peace and conflict solutions as a matter of creating international institutions ad hoc, while empowering – for example – supra-national organizations and international law. 
2. Absolute pacifism, which is maybe the most popular one, interprets peace as a result of an essentially moral choice and personal commitment for improving one’s society. 
3. With eco-pacifism the focus shifts to the eco-system, its fragility, the absolute importance of protecting all living beings, while fighting against social divide as necessary conditions to achieve a peaceful international order. At the end of the course these three important pacifist traditions will be put in comparison with each other to reflect on their differences and similarities and thus on the complexity and actuality of pacifism.     

Programa do curso: All the lessons will be held in English, they will be online, with  the use of power point slides. Although the course will be online, students will be encouraged to participate through structured class-discussions which be stimulated by the teacher through focused questions and excerpts. 

First class APRIL 6TH (4 HOURS): 
Students will be introduced to pacifism as a century-long tradition of thought having a normative status and being characterized by a great variety of diverse schools of thought. After that institutional pacifism will be analysed. In the first instance, this form of pacifism will be described in its general theoretical components, while illustrating its major political objectives. Then, the focus will shift to some of its major theorists and representatives. The first to be taken into consideration will be the Austrian legal philosopher HANS KELSEN with his project of a League of Nations based on the primacy of International law. The second thinker will be the Italian political philosopher NORBERTO BOBBIO proposing an empowerment of the U.N tasks and function. The third figure will be the German philosopher JÜRGEN HAMBERMAS who related peace to the aftermath of human rights. 

Second class APRIL 7th (4 HOURS)
In this second day of lesson we will analyze absolute pacifism through two iconic figures, MAHATMA GANDHI and MARTIN L. KING. Their lives and ideals will be discussed, while relating their ethical and political commitment for peace to the concrete, historical and political context within which they lived and acted. Gandhi’s pacifism will be analized in relation to the Indian liberation movement from the British rule, whereas King’s pacifism in relation to the American civil rights movement. By this way, the second class aims to show and argue how Gandhi’ and King’s pacifism had a strong operative dimension consisting in a personal and concrete effort to make India independent and fight against racism in U.S. 

Third class APRIL 8TH (4 HOURS)  
The last lesson aims to argue how ecological pacifism looks at the protection of the environment and the promotion of peaceful relations amongst living beings as two profoundly interrelated elements. According to ecological pacifism, human beings are potentially harmful not only towards their own kind, but also toward the environment as a whole. Starting from such an assumption, ecological pacifism shifts its focus from the search for peace, in terms of how to avoid warfare, to the search for peace in terms of protecting the environment in order to avoid “the extinction” of entire forms of life. A specific focus will be devoted to the concrete strategies promoted by eco-pacifism in order to improve eco-protection as a key-condition for conflict-solutions and peacekeeping. 
In the last lesson students – divided into groups – will be asked to prepare a critical reflection on each of the three forms of pacifism discussed in class in order to argue and stress both strengths and limits.

Bibliografia:

A.Alexandra, Political Pacifism, “Social Theory and Practice”, 29, 4, 2003, pp. 589-606.

D. Dalton, M. Gandhi: Non Violent Power in Action, N. Y, Columbia University Press, 2012.

A.Fiala (ed. by), The Routledge Handbook of Ecology and Pacifism, New York, Routledge, 2018.

D. L. Cady; From Warism to Pacifism. A Moral Continuum, Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1989.D. L. Cady, Why Ecologists must be Pacifists, paper read for the American Philosophical Association (2018): https://duanelcady.com/why-environmentalists-must-be-pacifists/

A.Fiala, The Pacifist Tradition and Pacifism as Transformative and Creative Theory, “The Acorn: Philosophical Studies in Pacifism and Nonviolence, 2019, available online: https://www.andrewfiala.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Fiala-Acorn-Paci…

H. Kelsen, Peace through Law, New Jersey, Lawbook Exchange Ltd; Reprint, 2008. 

M. L. King, A Testament of Hope: the Essential Writings and Speeches, London, Harper & Collins, 1990.

Leopold, Living with the Land Ethic, “Bioscience”, 54, 2, 2004, pp. 149-154: https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/54/2/149/255019

O. Shabani, Democracy, Power and Legitimacy: the Critical Theory of Jürgen Hambermas, Toronto, Toronto University Press, 2003. 

Dias 6, 7 e 8 de abril de 2021, das 09:00 as 13:00 (on-line). O link para acesso às aulas será enviado por e-mail aos alunos inscritos.

Gratuito.

De 23 de março a 01 de abril de 2021.

Link para inscrição: http://ccint.fflch.usp.br/summer_school_inscricoes

Vagas: 80 (por ordem de inscrição).