FSM BC 1206y
First-Year Seminar on VIOLENCE AND NONVIOLENCE
Spring 1999
Dennis Dalton 

The purpose of this seminar is to analyze the subjects of violence and nonviolence by exploring their causes and consequences, nature and dynamics. Violence and nonviolence represent large and complex human experiences so the analysis will range over a broad spectrum of topics and include a wide variety of literature. At each class meeting, basic questions will be raised and discussed; your grade will be based on the quality of your analysis, both in oral and written contributions.

The written requirement for the course is a series of four essays, each five to seven pages in length and due as specified in the syllabus: February 15, March 8, April 7 and April 30. Each essay should deal directly with the subject covered in that part of the course. It must make specific references to the assigned reading(s) by quoting, with footnotes. Your essay should be not merely a summary of the required reading but a thematic statement that uses the text to develop a particular interpretation or assessment of the subject.

As you develop a theme for your essay, consider the topics posed in that assignment and then relate your ideas and theme directly to the reading; they might also be aimed at points made in class discussion or a film shown in class. You may discuss your ideas for the essay with me, giving me a rough outline in verbal or written form of how you plan to approach the essay. Perhaps most important, you should allow sufficient time to complete your paper by writing at least two drafts of the essay before submitting it to me. This may allow you to refine your ideas or tighten your interpretations by stating them more logically and clearly, and also by drawing from the assigned readings to support your analysis.

Your essays will be graded on three criteria: clarity of expression, logical organization of ideas, and use of relevant readings. The main questions that you should ask for self evaluation as you compose the essay reflect these criteria: are the ideas stated clearly and directly? Is the theme developed in a logically organized form? Does the analysis rest on an ample use of the required reading or references to class discussion or films?

You may rewrite and resubmit each essay once to improve your grade if you submit it within one week after I have returned it to you, e.g., the February 15th paper, returned to you by February 22nd, would have to be resubmitted to me by no later than March lst. The grade for the rewritten essay would then be your final grade for that assignment. In any case, if you decide to rewrite your essay, then discuss with me the criticisms that I have made on your first copy. There is a penalty of one-half grade for lateness on any essay, e.g., "A-" will be reduced to a "B+" if submitted late.

Class discussion is vital for any seminar. You will receive a grade for your oral contributions to our discussions at the end of the semester that will comprise 25 % of your total grade in the course. This grade will be based on both the frequency and the quality of your weekly participation in class discussion. You may consult with me at any time throughout the semester about my evaluation of your participation. If you wish to improve your performance in this regard, we may arrange for you to present to me individually outside of class an oral commentary on the subject, approximately five pages in length. This would not be a substitute for your class participation but it may effectively supplement it. Above all, it is essential that you discuss directly with me, as often as you wish, any thoughts or concerns you may have about your participation and work in the course.

The following assigned paperback texts (listed in order of assignment) may be purchased at the Columbia University Bookstore, Papyrus Bookstore or Labyrinth Books. They are also on Reserve at the Barnard Library:

Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (Dover Thrift Editions)
Sapphire, Push (Vintage)
Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men (Harper Perennial)
Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell (Harper Perennial)
Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh (Mandarin)
Machiavelli, The Prince (Penguin)
Sophocles, Antigone (Harper and Row)
Aristophanes, Lysistrata, translated by Douglass Parker (Mentor)
Plato, The Last Days of Socrates (Penguin)
Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience (Dover Thrift Edition)
Mahatma Gandhi, Selected Political Writings (Hackett)
Andrew Macdonald, The Turner Diaries (National Vanguard Books)
Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom (Harper)

JAN.20th, 25th: Introduction. Explanation of the syllabus, the approach to the subject and fulfillment of the course requirements.

The first four weeks of the class focus on the problem of violence, from the perspective of contrasting theories and experiences. The opening question is: why does violence occur in society? The theoretical explanations of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud will be considered.

Assignment: relevant readings on Marx and Freud from excerpts in their writings, distributed in class and in the Political Theory Packet.

JAN. 27th: The first two classes distinguished the different responses of Marx and Freud to the question of what causes violent conflict. Marx attributed violence to the exploitative, alienating effects of the capitalist system. Freud, the founder of psychoanalytic theory, blamed the structure of the human personality, arguing that unconscious instincts of aggression dominated both the individual psyche and societies. A third explanation came from Stanley Milgram, behavioral psychologist, who contended from actual experiments conducted at Yale, that violence is the product of particular circumstances that can induce it in anyone. That is, Milgram holds responsible neither the economic system nor unconscious aggressive instincts, but social situations that are likely to create violent conflict.

Assignment: "Obedience", film by Milgram of his experiment, shown in class, and excerpts from his book, Obedience to Authority (distributed in class)

FEB. 1st: The three theoretical perspectives offered by Marx, Freud and Milgram, i.e., the economic, psychoanalytical and behavioral interpretations of social violence, may be applied to explain or analyze different forms of violent action. How useful is each in understanding the following three cases?
1. Slavery in 19th century America.

Assignment: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

FEB. 3rd: 2. Racism and sexism in America.

Assignment: Sapphire, Push.

FEB. 8th: 3. Anti-Semitism in World War II Europe:

Assignment: Christopher Browning, Ordinary Men, Preface, Chapters 1, 2, 5, 7, 8, 9, 14,15,18.

FIRST ESSAY DUE FEB. 15th: Create a dialogue among Marx, Freud and Milgram. to explain the violence evidenced in one or more of the assigned books by Douglass, Sapphire and Browning. Include yourself in the conversation by offering your explanation of the violence, which may or may not agree with theirs.

FEB. 10th: Discussion in class of the paper topic, the readings for it, and ideas for your essay.

FEB. 15th: Arguments for or against violence and nonviolence. From diagnosing the causes of violence our analysis moves to advocates of, first, nonviolence, and then of why violence is necessary. Nonviolence has been presented by most of the world's religions as a superior ethic, from the ideals of love and compassion in Hinduism and Buddhism to the "Golden Rule" of Judaism and Christianity. In ancient China, the religion of Taoism (pronounced DOWism), argued for nonviolence as a way of approaching life with a spirit of yielding, and yet of caring. Although expounded over 2500 years ago, it expresses values that have been revived for today, as the second reading below suggests,

FEB. 15th: Tao Te Ching, translated by Stephen Mitchell

FEB. 17th: Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh

FEB. 22nd: The necessity of violence in the world of politics has been argued by a variety of theorists, from the realists Han Fei Tzu and Kautilya in ancient China and India to American scholars of power politics like Hans Morgenthau or Henry Kissinger. They all accept violence as inevitable and prescribe realistic ways to deal with it in affairs of state. The archetypal proponent of this school of thought remains the 16th century Italian theorist, Niccolo Machiavelli, and the clearest, most forceful presentation of the doctrine occurs in his foremost work, The Prince.

Assignment: Machiavelli, The Prince, chapters 15-26.

SECOND ESSAY DUE MARCH 8th: Create a dialogue between Taoism and Machiavelli that presents their contrasting views on human nature and politics, on violence and how one's life should be lived. As in the first essay, it is important to include your own voice in this conversation, either by raising questions, criticizing their views or developing a position of your own.

MARCH 1st: Discussion in class of the paper topic and ideas for your essay.

MARCH 3rd: Nonviolent resistance to authority. In ancient Greece, during the "Golden Age of Athens" in the 5th century B.C.E., a creative outburst of art and philosophy occurred which included novel thinking about nonviolence, and especially of how tyrannical government might be opposed nonviolently. This idea emerged first in the drama Antigone by Sophocles, first performed in 441 B.C.E.

Assignment: Sophocles, Antigone

MARCH 8: Greek drama is known for its tragedy but it had a rich tradition of comedy as well. Aristophanes wrote a series of comedies and Lysistrata presents a satirical vision of Greek women offering a form of nonviolent resistance to the war between Athens and Sparta.

Assignment: Aristophanes, Lysistrata

MARCH 10th: Plato, the greatest of the Greek philosophers, expressed through the teachings and example of his mentor Socrates, a powerful statement of civil disobedience in his dialogue,

"The Apology."

Assignment: Plato, "The Apology"

MARCH 22nd: In colonial America, there were acts of civil disobedience against British taxation, e.g., the Boston Tea Party. However, the theory of civil disobedience was born in Concord, Mass., when Henry David Thoreau, after being imprisoned for refusal to pay his poll tax, wrote his inspired treatise.

Assignment: Henry Thoreau, Civil Disobedience

MARCH 24, 29, 31: In this century, the theory and practice of nonviolence assumed unprecedented proportions with Mahatma Gandhi's political movement for Indian independence. Gandhi was inspired by Western ideas from Plato and Thoreau, as well as from his own Hindu faith. As the first reading suggests, however, his direct correspondence with Leo Tolstoy influenced him profoundly. Tolstoy was a social theorist as well as a great novelist, who applied his Christian beliefs to form a political philosophy of pacifism and anarchism. The assigned document shows Tolstoy in correspondence with two Indians involved in the struggle for independence: first, Taraknath Das, an advocate of revolutionary violence against British rule, and later, Mohandas ("Mahatma") Gandhi, who was then 40 years old and just beginning his political career in South Africa.

Assignment:"Utter to a Hindoo" by Taraknath Das, Leo Tolstoy and Mahatma Gandhi, pp.8- 65.

MARCH 29th: Gandhi believed that his idea and practice of satyagraha ("truth-force" or "love-force") was a new discovery in the power of nonviolence. When he returned to India in 1915, he began his long effort to apply this method to the liberation of his country. Our analysis and discussion of Gandhi in the assigned reading will focus on satyagraha: its development (including his reply to Tolstoy), and his application of it, first, with the "salt march" of 1930, to resist Britain's tax on salt, and then his Calcutta fast for Hindu-Muslim unity in 1947.

Assignment:Mahatma Gandhi, Selected Political Writings, pp. 3-91.

MARCH 31 st: After using satyagraha as mass civil disobedience against the British in the form of the salt march, Gandhi directed it against his own people by fasting for religious harmony. This occurred at the time of India's independence when the nation had plunged into a massive civil war. The power of nonviolence was tested in a different way than when it was used against the British.

Assignment:Selections from documentary and feature films on Gandhi, shown in class.

THIRD ESSAY DUE APRIL 7th: Construct a conversation among Antigone, Socrates, Thoreau and Gandhi that assesses the relative strengths and weaknesses of nonviolent action, e.g., through a roundtable discussion in which you, the moderator, interview each on the merits and limitations of the method that she or he set forth to oppose injustice.

APRIL 5th: Discussion in class of essay topic and ideas for writing it.

APRIL 7, 12: The Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. began in 1955 with the Montgomery bus boycott, the purest and most dramatic campaign of nonviolent resistance ever organized in America. Its principal leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote an account of the boycott which is also an early autobiography of his own intellectual development. The background and main action of the movement has been captured on film, first in the documentary, "Eyes on the Prize," and then the feature film, "The Long Walk Home." The documentary will be shown and discussed in class; the feature film is an outside class assignment, available in the Barnard library media room, 3rd floor, or it may be rented from local video stores.

APRIL 7th: "Eyes on the Prize" film shown in class and discussion

APRIL 12th: Assignment: Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom

APRIL 14th: Organized and successful nonviolent resistance to the Nazis was rare. Gentiles seldom made large-scale attempts to save Jews during World War 11. A striking exception occurred in the small French town of Le Charnbon, where a Christian community of 5,000 Gentiles, from 1942-1944, rescued 5,000 Jews who had fled Nazi persecution and terror. The true story is told in Philip Hallie's Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed, and more recently in a documentary that was directed by a survivor and entitled, "Weapons of the Spirit. " Our analysis of this instance of nonviolent action focuses on "Weapons of the Spirit", shown in class. You are also asked to view the feature film, "Le Chambon, " outside of class, available in the Media room of the Barnard library. One question that will be posed of this use of nonviolence in Le Chambon is why it was tried and worked under these particular circumstances.

Assignment: "Weapons of the Spirit" film, shown in class and the "Le Chambon" feature film.

APRIL 19, 21, 26: Assessing practices and/or prospects of nonviolent action in America. When contemporary problems of violence in our society are considered, how feasible or useful is the method of nonviolent action, based on what we have studied or can envisage for the future? Many examples of violence threatening our society could be cited, from teenage gangs and murder in our schools to the threat of international terrorism or war. The three examples chosen below are familiar but not exhaustive.

APRIL 19th: Sexual violence. "Take Back the Night"

Assignment: Material about "Take Back the Night" distributed in class, discussion of the event as it occurs on the Barnard campus.

APRIL 21st: Violence, racist and anti-Semitic, threatened by the American Radical Right.

Assignment: Andrew Macdonald, The Turner Diaries, and material distributed in class.

APRIL 26th: Violence in the American media.

Assignment: Sissela Bok, Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment. (pp. 1-89, 145- 158)

APRIL 28th: Discussion in class of these three topics and conclusions.

FOURTH ESSAY IS OPTIONAL. If you choose to submit it, then it is DUE APRIL 30th. There will be no opportunity to resubmit a rewrite of this last essay although we may discuss its grade before your course grade is determined. The topic can be chosen from any one of the subjects covered since April 7th, or a comparison of more than one. For example, either an analysis of the dynamics of the Montgomery bus boycott or a contrast between the nonviolent actions in Montgomery and Le Chambon. An assessment of the uses of nonviolence in the context of any one of the last three examples, e.g., "Take Back the Night", would also be appropriate.

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) offer contrasting theories of the causes of violence, as suggested in the following excerpts from their writings:

Marx wrote in Capital (1867): "Within the capitalist system all methods for raising the social productiveness of labor are brought about at the cost of the individual laborer; all means for the development of production transform themselves into means of domination over, and exploitation of, the producers; they mutilate the laborer into a fragment of a man, degrade him to the level of an appendage of a machine, destroy every remnant of charm in his work and turn it into a hated toil; they estrange from him the intellectual potentialities of the labor process in the same proportion as science is incorporated in it as an independent power. . . "

Freud, writing 63 years later, following disillusionment over WWI, the Great Depression, and the rise of Nazism, offered a grim assessment of human nature and its aggressive instincts:

"The element of truth behind all this, which people are so ready to disavow, is that men are not gentle creatures who want to be loved, and who at the most can defend themselves if they are attacked; they are, on the contrary, creatures among whose instinctual endowments is to be reckoned a powerful share of aggressiveness. As a result, their neighbor is for them not only a potential helper or sexual object, but also someone who tempts them to satisfy their aggressiveness on him, to exploit his capacity for work without compensation, to use him sexually without his consent, to seize his possessions, to humiliate him, to cause him pain, to torture and to kill him. Homo homini 1upus [Man is a wolf to man] . . . The existence of this inclination to aggression, which we can detect in ourselves and justly assume to be present in others, is the factor which disturbs our relations with our neighbor and which forces civilization into such a high expenditure [of energy]. In consequence of this primary mutual hostility of human beings, civilized society is perpetually threatened with disintegration." (Civilization and its Discontents, 1930, ch.5)