ES.114 | Fall 2018 | Undergraduate

Non-violence as a Way of Life

Course Description

This course addresses the philosophical question of what a non-violent life entails. It investigates its ethical dimensions and challenges, and considers whether we can derive a comprehensive moral theory from the principle of non-violence. In addition, it discusses the issues of lying, the duty to forgive, non-violent …

This course addresses the philosophical question of what a non-violent life entails. It investigates its ethical dimensions and challenges, and considers whether we can derive a comprehensive moral theory from the principle of non-violence. In addition, it discusses the issues of lying, the duty to forgive, non-violent communication, the ethics of our relationship to anger, the possibility of loving enemies, and the ethics of punishment and rehabilitation. Readings are included from primary exponents of non-violence, such as Tolstoy, Gandhi, and King.

This course is part of the Experimental Study Group at MIT.

Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments
A statue of an elderly gentleman, with his head bowed and his legs crossed beneath him.
A statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Tavistock Square, London. (Image courtesy of London Matt on Flickr. License CC BY.)