On Violence

This book starts with a call to reason. Of course, other concepts are closely woven in, including the distinction between reason, thinking, and feeling, where they merge, and how one may stimulate the others.

Violence and reason are related; violence is done to reason every single day. It is simple to do violence to reason. 

As an eminent professor recently observed, “It is manifestly obvious that our society is not capable of conducting an honest, logical, reasonably informed discourse on matters of consequence. Instead, we experience fantasy, fabrication, fatuousness and fulmination.” — No one listens. When we fail to listen, everything else, all the real violence, starts right there.

Well, you might say, opinions vary — what seems reasonable to me might not seem reasonable to you. What do we do with this dilemma? Do both sides of the debate have recourse to violence in the end? 

This book speaks to those who wish to explore the theme of violence to a depth not ordinarily reached in everyday conversation. While the author offers a sophisticated analysis, he does so without the use of jargon or highly technical language. Instead, he uses the classical philosophical framework, the Platonic dialogue, in this case a friendly coffee-shop conversation between two characters who explore what violence is, where it comes from, and, by implication—where it might be going. This is the kind of stimulating conversation we rarely have time for in real life, even if we have the right partner to engage with.

Bouncing ideas off each other, the characters evaluate and refine their own positions, gaining clarity and confidence.