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A Key Problem of Current Political Philosophy: The Issue of Force and Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2022

John Somerville
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Extract

In recent years American legislatures and other governing bodies, public and private, have been considering, probably more frequently than ever before, problems associated with the idea of overthrow of government by force and violence. The question usually takes the form of whether Communists believe in and advocate this doctrine; and, if they do, whether they should therefore be penalized in various ways. This issue is and has been central to a series of legal actions which, whatever their ultimate outcome, will constitute a landmark in the history of American jurisprudence.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , April 1952 , pp. 156 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © Philosophy of Science Association 1952

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References

1 Reynal and Hitchcock, vol. I, p. 103.

2 Ibid., p. 38.

3 P. 37

4 English translation in Steckloff, G.: History of the First International.

5 Selected Works, vol. VII, p. 368. Moscow. Co-op. Pub.

6 Ibid., p. 369.

7 Chap. III, sect. 1. Collected Works, vol. XXI, Bk. II, p. 181. N. Y., International.

8 Ibid., p. 180. Prof. E. H. Carr, in his recent book, The Bolshevik Revolution, Vol. I, cites Lenin's blunt statement in 1917: “We are not Blanquists: we are not in favor of seizure of power by a minority.” (P. 18.)

9 Ibid., p. 180.

10 Ibid., p. 180.

11 Quoted in Lenin; Selected Works, vol. VII, p. 439. Moscow. Co-op Pub. Explanatory Notes.

12 Two Treatises of Civil Government, Chap. XIX.

13 Cf. Mussolini, The Doctrine of Fascism, pp. 26, 27: “… Fascism does not, generally speaking, believe in the possibility or utility of perpetual peace. War alone keys up all human energies to their maximum tension, and sets the seal of nobility on those peoples who have the courage to face it.” (Italics ours.) Hitler writes in Mein Kampf: “Mankind has grown strong in eternal struggles, and it will only perish through eternal peace.” (P. 175, Reynal and Hitchcock.) “Might alone makes right.” (P. 949.) For a discussion of the ideological and practical context of these assertions, see Somerville: The Philosophy of Peace, Gaer, 1949.