Can justice be forced on individuals and communities? The essays in this collection by Henry David Thoreau urge us to consider the difficult matter of how to counter the specific injustice manifested in the practice of buying and selling human beings and how to implement laws and practices that help establish justice. Of the many philosophical ideas Thoreau explores, the central concern is how to end slavery and provide justice for all. It is no surprise to find Thoreau defending the idea of civil disobedience, but his defense of John Brown, who used violence, including murder, commands our attention. The Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s in the U.S. was heavily influenced by the rhetoric, the actions, and the overall philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., who famously combined civil disobedience and nonviolent action under the strong influence of Mohandas K. Gandhi. Although Gandhi staunchly defends and promotes the use of nonviolence, he is quick to condemn inaction as an even greater evil than violence. If forced to choose between doing nothing and using violence, he would choose violence; but his many writings and speeches are designed to show that we almost always have a nonviolent alternative to oppose injustice and foster justice. The lives of more than a billion residents of India have been profoundly shaped by the ideas Gandhi presents and defends in these selections from MY NONVIOLENCE. The liberation of India from British colonialism and the establishing of what Gandhi called "home rule" is powerful evidence of the role nonviolence can play in bringing about justice and eliminating injustice. Gandhi addresses not only matters of race and skin color but also the caste system and the social stratification that currently pervade the entire globe. These works by Thoreau and Gandhi consider the best way to promote justice and goodness not in utopia but in the actual world where we live. The primary goal of Agora Publications is not to answer such controversial questions by taking sides but to provide access to philosophical works that promote such dialogue. Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 - May 6, 1862) was an American philosopher who wrote about nature, social and political issues, and human existence in general. He worked closely with other transcendentalist thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller. Thoreau is best known for his book Walden, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings; his essay "Civil Disobedience" offers arguments for disobedience to an unjust state. Mohandas K. Gandhi (October 2, 1869 - January 30, 1948) was an Indian philosopher who was formally educated as a lawyer. He initially taught and practiced nonviolent resistance in South Africa and then led the successful campaign for India's independence from British rule. His actions and his writings inspired movements for civil rights and freedom throughout the globe.

Judith Butler’s new book shows how an ethic of nonviolence must be connected to a broader political struggle for social equality. Further, it argues that nonviolence is often misunderstood as a passive practice that emanates from a calm region of the soul, or as an individualist ethical relation to existing forms of power. But, in fact, nonviolence is an ethical position found in the midst of the political field. An aggressive form of nonviolence accepts that hostility is part of our psychic constitution, but values ambivalence as a way of checking the conversion of aggression into violence. One contemporary challenge to a politics of nonviolence points out that there is a difference of opinion on what counts as violence and nonviolence. The distinction between them can be mobilised in the service of ratifying the state’s monopoly on violence. Considering nonviolence as an ethical problem within a political philosophy requires a critique of individualism as well as an understanding of the psychosocial dimensions of violence. Butler draws upon Foucault, Fanon, Freud, and Benjamin to consider how the interdiction against violence fails to include lives regarded as ungrievable. By considering how ‘racial phantasms’ inform justifications of state and administrative violence, Butler tracks how violence is often attributed to those who are most severely exposed to its lethal effects. The struggle for nonviolence is found in movements for social transformation that reframe the grievability of lives in light of social equality and whose ethical claims follow from an insight into the interdependency of life as the basis of social and political equality.

Thoreau advocates for nonviolent protest in his classic manifesto Motivated by his disgust with the US government, Henry David Thoreau’s seminal philosophical essay enjoins individuals to stand against the ruling forces that seek to erase their free will. It is the duty of a good citizen, he argues, not only to disobey a bad law, but also to protest an unjust government. His message of nonviolence and appeal to value one’s own conscience over political legislation have resonated throughout American and world history. Peppered with the author’s poetry and social commentary, Civil Disobedience has become a manifesto for civil dissidents, revolutionaries, and protestors everywhere. Indeed, originally so unpopular with readers that Thoreau was forced to buy back over half of the books from his publisher, this work has gone on to inspire the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

The Power of Nonviolence, written by Richard Bartlett Gregg in 1934 and revised in 1944 and 1959, is the most important and influential theory of principled or integral nonviolence published in the twentieth century. Drawing on Gandhi's ideas and practice, Gregg explains in detail how the organized power of nonviolence (power-with) exercised against violent opponents can bring about small and large transformative social change and provide an effective substitute for war. This edition includes a major introduction by political theorist, James Tully, situating the text in its contexts from 1934 to 1959, and showing its great relevance today. The text is the definitive 1959 edition with a foreword by Martin Luther King, Jr. It includes forewords from earlier editions, the chapter on class struggle and nonviolent resistance from 1934, a crucial excerpt from a 1929 preliminary study, a biography and bibliography of Gregg, and a bibliography of recent work on nonviolence.

DIVFine explanation of civil disobedience shows how great pacifist used non-violent philosophy to lead India to independence. Self-discipline, fasting, social boycotts, strikes, other techniques. /div

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "On the Duty of Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Even a cursory reading of Henry David Thoreau's immortal essay about civil disobedience reveals echoes in contemporary discussions of individual rights and the limits of government in a free society. Its themes resonate into the 21st century. Faced with a federal government that condoned the institution of slavery and was waging a war of questionable origin in Mexico, Thoreau pushed his readers to consider the responsibility of an individual with conscience. This edition includes ?The definition of a peaceable revolution, ? an introductory essay by Warren Bluhm