Alan Page Fiske - Virtuous Violence: Hurting and Killing to Create, Sustain, End, and Honor Social Relationships

Its not possible to have a clear understanding of the past, present or future of war, terrorism and torture without knowing the basic message of Virtuous Violence .

In our preferred world of liberal democracy, tolerance of diversity and distributive justice, violence especially extreme forms of mass bloodshed are generally considered pathological or evil expressions of human nature gone awry, or a collateral result of good intentions. Not so, argue Fiske and Rai, in this deeply reasoned and well-documented survey of violence, universally considered by its perpetrators to be mostly a matter of moral virtue. Virtuous Violence aims to explain the emotions and intentions that give rise to various kinds of human violence by understanding its generation in both our species-wide and culture-specific moral psychology, which is geared to regulate social life. Building on earlier ground-breaking work on the fundamental forms of social relationships in all cultures, the authors show that the most sustained and consequential forms of human violence across history and cultures result from beliefs that it is right and necessary to hurt and suffer harm, and to die and kill, to protect and foster those relationships. Through compelling analyses ranging from primeval forms of human sacrifice to contemporary torture, ancient wars to medieval jousts, contact sports to gang fights, violent revolutions to suicide terrorism and mass murder, Virtuous Violence lays bare the moral motives for murderous passions, as a sort of evolutionary impetus to manage the interpersonal and intergroup interactions upon which societies depend, often aided by gods, spirits and abstract causes to which no creature but man is subject. Happily, however, the authors also show that violence isnt always necessary to keep things in line, so that modern prescriptions for non-violence within and between societies increasingly have a chance, provided they are grounded in understanding social facts rather than in wishful thinking or pure reason.

A provocative tour through the (long) world history of violence. You wont think about violence and its many manifestations or read a newspaper the same way again.

We have all watched movies where violent actions occur as part and consequence of social relations, and where the art of the movie consists of letting the audience share exactly the same emotions and motives that make that violence inevitable and feel right. At the same time, the mainstream social psychological arguments rarely pick up on these motives. This book provides a powerful argument in favor of scientifically considering these causes of violence. It is a scientifically important book, which touches on many issues we are concerned about as citizens, and will surely attract much attention and discussion as well as hopefully influencing future work in the social and behavioral sciences on this topic.

The authors of this exciting book convincingly show that most individuals and groups engage in violence believing that what they do is right, moral and even obligatory. This well-written book shows the great challenge of preventing such righteous violence, and provides the knowledge base to engage with this challenge.

Virtuous Violence

Hurting and Killing to Create, Sustain, End, and Honor Social Relationships

The social-relational, moral motivational psychology, cultural anthropology and history of war, torture, genocide, animal and human sacrifice, obedience to gods, religious self-torture, homicide, robbery, intimate partner conflict, rape, suicide and self-harm, corporal and capital punishment, trial by ordeal and combat, policing, initiation, castration, fighting for status, contact sports and martial arts, honor, the Iliad and the Trojan War, injurious mortuary rites, and homicidal mourning

Alan Page Fiske

Tage Shakti Rai

University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom

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