Violence as Violation: An Enquiry into the Normative Significance of Violence

The term violence is imbued with a great deal of moral and normative force. While this may generally be agreed upon, the question as to what violence consists in is one with very disparate answers. This Paper aims to assess the different ways in which violence may be understood, with the hope of coming to a broad understanding of violence that captures the full normative significance of the term. Whereas some may regard violence as something which exists purely in the realm of the physical, other understandings take a more nuanced view. According to such views, violence may be psychological, latent or structural as well as physical. Such modes of violence will be discussed in turn, and their various strengths and shortcomings evaluated. This will, so far as possible, be situated in a wider philosophical context, with relevant conceptual parallels being noted. Continuities shared among all normatively significant modes of violence will then be identified, with the hope of arriving at an understanding that captures the force of what each meaningfully articulates. It will be argued that the central continuity shared among meaningful modes of violence is violation of means to human flourishing, a rounded understanding will thus define violence in terms of violation.