The Ethics of (Un)Civil Resistance

Bibliographic Data

ID12160307
AuthorsWilliam Smith (0000-0001-6611-0817)
Year2019
Volume33
Issue3
Pages363-373
Publication date2019-01-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEthics & International Affairs (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0892-6794 • E-ISSN: 1747-7093
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0892679419000248
OpenAlexW2971498198
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited13

Civil disobedience is a conscientious, unlawful, and broadly nonviolent form of protest, which most political philosophers and many non-philosophers are inclined to treat as potentially defensible in democratic societies. In recent years, philosophers have become more receptive to long-standing complaints from activists that civil disobedience is an unduly restrictive framework for considering the ethics of dissent. Candice Delmas and Jason Brennan have written important books that illustrate and strengthen this trend, both defending forms of “uncivil” resistance that go beyond the narrow confines of civil disobedience. Their books offer contrasting but complementary philosophical defences of incivility as a tactic of resistance, but it is nonetheless a mistake to conclude that the rich tradition associated with civil disobedience no longer has any relevance for resistance in national, transnational, and global contexts

Civil disobedience · Democracy · Dissent · Mistake · Political science · Politics · Relevance (law · Resistance (ecology · Sociology · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Law · Political Philosophy and Ethics · War, Ethics, and Justification

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