How do you get college students to read, understand, and like philosophy? A gifted teacher helps. Open discussion helps. However, the issue of the text remains. Most classical and contemporary philosophical texts are steeped in careful and frequently complex arguments. Many times such texts have an elaborate systematic structure and include numerous references to classical figures and scholarly secondary sources. The use of esoteric technical terms is also very common. No wonder the average college student is put off by such texts. The effort to read these texts and then follow lectures on them (often delivered in the same style, even if the instructor does so in a somewhat diluted manner) is likewise often met with yawns, or even nods—not of assent but of drowsiness. Andrew Fitz-Gibbon’s Pragmatic Nonviolence is not such a text.
Fitz-Gibbon returns to the style originally used by Plato—the dialogue. As publishers of Young Adult (ya) fiction have learned, books with a more conversational style are more likely to catch a reader’s attention; once hooked, readers may even continue reading a series of such books that build upon one another. The instructor who uses a text that has a dialogical style or narrative format can spend more time discussing ideas—instead of defining terms or explaining the logic of arguments. Classroom presentation and discussion, instead, can be used to engage the students with the “story” and take them to deeper—more philosophical—levels. The “conversation” of the book can continue, strengthened by allowing students to engage in dialogue like that found in the book—through interactions made even more relevant by sharing and examining their own experiences and views. An additional plus for the dialogue format of this particular book is that the “scholarly” trappings are not altogether eliminated. Instead, they are placed in footnotes and need not interrupt the flow of reading, engagement, and understanding. For the instructor, this feature of the book also facilitates a way to point to and discuss more technical terms and issues. By having primary and secondary sources included in footnotes, the instructor does not have to provide them by writing them on the board, projecting them on a screen, or putting them into a handout. Outside of class, the motivated student (or even instructor) can follow up by making use of the well-chosen bibliographic citations—some with helpful quotes or elaboration on relevant points.
General readers, if they pick up a philosophical book, often face obstacles similar to those of college students—except they frequently also lack the benefits that an instructor and class discussion can provide. For the general reader as well, the dialogical style of Pragmatic Nonviolence facilitates access, interest, and understanding. Persons who might never wade through a typical philosophical text can be drawn into the conversational style of this book that allows questions about its thesis and argument to be raised and addressed along the way toward its final conclusion. In these ways, this book is accessible to a broad audience and provides a very useful means to engage readers in philosophical reflection.
Most significantly, this very engaging “dialogue” also addresses a vital topic. The problem of violence has plagued human beings throughout their history. In recent times, the instruments of violence—from handguns to nuclear weapons—have increased in number and lethality and make a response to the problem of violence even more urgent. Many argue that from individuals through governments, the way to respond to violence is with violence (though such violence is often called by different names—from “law and order” to “counter-violence”). The view that the response to violence needs to be more violence has been common since the time of Plato’s Republic where Thrasymachus equates justice with the interest of the stronger and provides an early version of the view that “might makes right.” From the efforts of Socrates to refute Thrasymachus through contemporary efforts to respond to Realpolitk
Advocates of nonviolence have had an especially hard time being heard—and being harkened. From religious figures within virtually every major religion through such icons as Gandhi
Fitz-Gibbon is not only a good writer and a good “story teller,” he is also a leading figure in philosophy of peace, nonviolence, and social justice. Over the last quarter-century, he has published several academic books in philosophy and in religion. He has also published many journal articles and book chapters. Many of these publications deal with issues of nonviolence and/or re-parenting. While his scholarly work on nonviolence is well known among philosophers, his work on re-parenting has attracted a broad audience outside professional philosophy. (His expertise is not just academic but also personal; since 1982 he and his wife have fostered over 100 children and on the basis of this experience developed their practice of what they term “loving nonviolent re-parenting.”) Some of this additional work on “re-parenting” is also expressed in the current book when conversations turn to very insightful and helpful considerations of violence in everyday family situations.
Not surprisingly, Fitz-Gibbon is also involved with several professional associations, including Concerned Philosophers for Peace (cpp). cpp is the largest professional society in North America oriented to philosophical issues in peace, justice, and nonviolence, and Fitz-Gibbon has served as the President of cpp (2012–2013). Furthermore, he edited one of the volumes in the “Philosophy of Peace” Book Series of cpp, namely, Positive Peace: Reflections on Peace, Education, Nonviolence, and Social Change (2010). (He is himself also editor of a “Social Philosophy” book series.) In still further research, he extends his work to address not only the mind but also the body. He has done important work in “somaesthetics—bodily practice—and he practices and teaches techniques relating to such bodily practice. In addition, he frequently applies his thinking to contemporary issues. For example, in his book Talking to Terrorists (2016) he shows that since 9/11 treatments of terrorism often myopically reduce it to what the scholarly literature refers to as “insurgent” or sub-national terrorism. He exposes how this focus ignores state- and state-sponsored terrorism (“incumbent” terrorism) inflicted directly against its own citizens or indirectly against external groups. In this example of applied philosophy, he provides practical suggestions for addressing terrorist incidents in Northern Ireland and the Gaza Strip.
Fitz-Gibbon, who has received a variety of awards for his excellent teaching and scholarship, is well positioned to present and defend his view that the philosophy of pragmatic nonviolence “makes for a better world.” His diverse and rich background allows him to blend successfully an informed philosophical approach with the pedagogical method of dialogue. As he indicates in his “Introduction,” he returns in the present book to the dialogue format he used in his Love as a Guide to Morals (2012). As he notes, this book engaged his students more directly and successfully than his straightforward academic works. In addition, by employing this format again in this book, he is able to express a variety of perspectives through the comments and questions of the academic characters that he places in dialogue with one another on this topic. The position of pragmatic nonviolence is introduced gradually through the realistic and authentic conversations among his four primary characters—faculty members from several departments who come from varied backgrounds and perspectives. (In relation to development of his own perspective on pragmatic nonviolence, he allows these characters to express the central influences on his own thinking of religious pacifism, analytic philosophy, and Daoism.) He is able to present views that diverge from one another, challenge one another, and often come to complement one another. Along the way the reader is gradually taken to increasingly deeper and more nuanced expositions and defenses of pragmatic nonviolence.
Pragmatic Nonviolence is an important contribution to the philosophy of nonviolence. By writing in a manner accessible to undergraduates and to general readers, Fitz-Gibbon broadens the audience for his argument. On multiple levels, this book successfully stimulates reflection and discussion on how pragmatic nonviolence offers a moral and an effective response to violence that advances progress toward “a better world.”
William C. Gay
Emeritus Professor of Philosophy,
University of North Carolina, Charlotte