In this first anthology of major philosophical contributions on the nature and justifiability of violence over the last 100 years , three basic questions are scrutinized: 'What is violence?', 'Is violence always wrong?', and 'Can violence be justified?'.

Acknowledgements Notes on Contributors Introduction; V.Bufacchi Force, Violence and Law and Force and Coercion; J.Dewey Commentary on Dewey The Economic Meaning of War and Protection; F.C.Lane Commentary on Lane Violence and the Western Political Tradition; S.S.Wolin Commentary on Wolin On Violence; R.P.Wolff Commentary on Wolff Justifying Violence; B.Gert Commentary on Gert Violence, Peace and Peace Research; J.Galtung Commentary on Galtung What is Wrong with Violence; G.C.MacCallum Commentary on MacCallum On the Meaning and Justification of Violence; R.Audi Commentary on Audi What Violence Is; N.Garver Commentary on Garver The Marxist Conception of Violence; J.Harris Commentary on Harris On Justifying Violence; K.Nielsen Commentary on Nielsen The Idea of Violence; C.A.J.Coady Commentary on Coady Violence and the Perspective of Morality; R.L.Holmes Commentary on Holmes Violence and Power; R.F.Litke Commentary on Litke The Different Categories of Violence; J.Salmi Commentary on Salmi Poverty and Violence; S.Lee Commentary on Lee Outliving Oneself; S.J.Brison Commentary on Brison Thinking Clearly about Violence; A.Bäck Commentary on Bäck Index

ROBERT AUDI is Professor of Philosophy and David E. Gallo Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Notre Dame, France. ALLAN BA CK is Professor of Philosophy at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, USA. SUSAN J. BRISON is Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA. CAJ COADY is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Melbourne, Australia. JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952), a leading proponent of the American school of thought known as 'pragmatism', was Professor of Philosophy at the universities of Michigan, Chicago and Columbia, USA. JOHAN GALTUNG is a Norwegian sociologist, and founder of the International Peace Research Institute. NEWTON GARVER is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at the University of Buffalo, New York, USA. BERNARD GERT is Stone Professor of Intellectual and Moral Philosophy at Dartmouth College, USA. JOHN HARRIS is the Sir David Alliance Professor of Bioethics at the University of Manchester, UK. ROBERT L. HOLMES is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Rochester, New York, USA. FREDERIC C. LANE (1990-1984) was Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University, and from 1951 Assistant Director of the Social Sciences for the Rockefeller Foundation in Europe. STEVEN LEE is Professor of Philosophy at Hobart and William Smith College, New York, USA. ROBERT F. LITKE is Professor of Philosophy at Wilfred Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. KAI NIELSEN is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Calgary, USA. GERALD C. MACCALLUM (1925-1987) was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. JAMIL SALMI is an economist with the World Bank, and deputy director of the World Bank's Education Department. SHELDON S. WOLIN is a political theorist, and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, USA. ROBERT PAUL WOLFF is currently Professor Emeritus the W. E. B. Du Bois Department of Afro-American Studies, at the University of Massachusetts, USA.