pacifism

/pas"euh fiz'euhm/, n.

1. opposition to war or violence of any kind.

2. refusal to engage in military activity because of one's principles or beliefs.

3. the principle or policy that all differences among nations should be adjusted without recourse to war.

Also, pacificism /peuh sif"euh siz'euhm/.

[1905-10; < pacifisme. See PACIFIC, -ISM]

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The doctrine that war and violence as a means of settling disputes is morally wrong.

The first genuinely pacifist movement was Buddhism, whose founder demanded from his followers absolute abstention from any act of violence against their fellow creatures. The ancient Greek conception of pacifism applied to individual conduct rather than to the actions of peoples or kingdoms. The Romans conceived of pax, or peace, as a covenant between states or kingdoms that creates a "just" situation based on mutual recognition. This judicial approach was applicable only to the "civilized world," however. Though the spoken words of Jesus as recorded in the New Testament could be interpreted as a kind of pacifism (and in fact were so interpreted by many of his early followers), from the early 3rd century through the Middle Ages the Christian church itself held that armies were necessary to combat nonbelievers or demons. In the 17th and 18th centuries, much pacifist thinking was based on the idea that transferring power from sovereigns to the people would result in peace, because, it was claimed, wars were a product of sovereigns' ambitions and pride. In the 19th and 20th centuries, pacifism inspired widespread interest in general disarmament and in the creation of international organizations for the peaceful resolution of disputes, such as the League of Nations and the United Nations. Pacifism as a national policy, rather than as a standard of individual conduct, has yet to satisfactorily address the problem of an aggressor that does not possess similar moral scruples. Individual pacifism may lead one to become a conscientious objector. Historically important pacifists include Leo Tolstoy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

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▪ political philosophy

      the opposition to war and violence as a means of settling disputes. Pacifism may entail the belief that the waging of war by a state and the participation in war by an individual are absolutely wrong, under any circumstances.

      In the ancient world, war was taken for granted as a necessary evil by some societies, while in others it was not even regarded as an evil. Individual voices in various lands decried the evils of war, but the first genuinely pacifist movement known came from Buddhism, whose founder demanded from his followers absolute abstention from any act of violence against their fellow creatures. In India the great Buddhist-influenced king Aśoka in the 3rd century BC definitely renounced war, but he was thinking primarily of wars of conquest. In succeeding ages Buddhism does not seem to have been very successful in restraining the rulers of countries in which it was adopted from making war. This may be because the Buddhist rule of life, as generally understood, served as a counsel of perfection which comparatively few could be expected to follow in its entirety.

      In classical antiquity, pacifism remained largely an ideal in the minds of a few intellectuals. The Greek conceptions of peace—including Stoicism—were centred on the peaceful conduct of the individual rather than on the conduct of whole peoples or kingdoms. In Rome the achievement of pax, or peace, was defined as a covenant between states or kingdoms that creates a “just” situation and that rests upon bilateral recognition. This judicial approach was applicable only to the “civilized world,” however. Thus the Pax Romana of the 1st and 2nd centuries AD was not really universal because it was always regarded as a peace for the civilized world alone and excluded the barbarians. And since the barbarian threat never ended, neither did the wars Rome waged to protect its frontiers against this threat.

       Christianity, with its evangelical message, offered considerations in support of individual nonviolence as well as of collective peacefulness. Jesus' spoken words as recorded in the New Testament could be interpreted as a kind of pacifism and in fact were so interpreted by many of Jesus' early radical followers. As a rule, however, the “peace” that Jesus spoke of was only open to minorities or to sects that practiced a rigorous ethics, while the Christian Church itself had to compromise with worldly necessities. “The question of soldiers”—the inconsistency between the pursuit of peace and fighting in wars—was disturbing to Christians from the time of Jesus. However, in the early 3rd century, certain passages in the Gospels were interpreted to indicate that armies were not only acceptable but necessary in order to fight against demons. In the early 5th century, St. Augustine (Augustine, Saint) wrote De Civitate Dei (The City of God), which presented a distinction between worldly and supraworldly peace. He felt that worldly peace was acceptable only if it was in accord with Christian law, and it was the duty of the worldly state to serve the church and to defend itself against those who wished to undermine the church's authority. These ideas prevailed throughout the Middle Ages and were often tied with the myth of an eschatological emperor who would suppress nonbelievers and lead the world to peaceful times. Like the Roman pax, Christian peace needed to be perpetually defended. There was a never-ending threat posed by non-Christians, who were viewed as demonic.

      Since the Renaissance, concepts of pacifism have been developed with varying degrees of political influence. A great deal of pacifist thought in the 17th and 18th centuries was based on the idea that a transfer of political power from the sovereigns to the public was a crucial step toward world peace, since wars were thought of as arising from the dynastic ambitions and power politics of kings and princes. Thus was propagated the illusion that monarchies tended toward wars because the sovereigns regarded their states as their personal property and that compared to this, a republic would be peaceful. The offshoot of these theories was the creation of pacifist organizations in 19th-century Europe in which such ideas as general disarmament and the instigation of special courts to hear international conflicts were entertained. The theme of pacifism thereby caught the public interest and inspired an extensive literature. Some of these ideas were later realized in the Court of Arbitration in The Hague, the League of Nations, the United Nations, and temporary disarmament conferences, but their overall effect was limited. In the 19th century, for instance, the real maintenance of a relative peace resulted from the statesmanlike political establishment of a balance of power among the five great European states. The succeeding century, with its two world wars, its nuclear stalemate, and its unending succession of conflicts among developed and developing nations, has been notable chiefly for the utter irrelevance of pacifist principles and practices.

      Pacifism is not a part of Communist ideology. Lenin rejected it outright, and in the work of Karl Marx, “revolution” and “war” are synonymous. Their theories and those of Friedrich Engels advocate the necessity of “just” war against the capitalistic classes, with the goals of a classless society and universal peace following the world-revolutionary victory of the international proletariat.

      There are two general approaches or varieties of pacifist behaviour and aspirations. The one rests on the advocacy of pacifism and the complete renunciation of war as a policy to be adopted by a nation. The other stems from the conviction of an individual that his personal conscience forbids him to participate in any act of war and perhaps in any act of violence whatsoever.

      The arguments for pacifism as a possible national policy run on familiar lines. The obvious and admitted evils of war are stressed—the human suffering and loss of life, the economic damage, and perhaps above all, the moral and spiritual degradation war brings. Since World War II increasing emphasis has also been laid on the terrible powers of destruction latent in nuclear weapons. Pacifist advocates often assume that the abandonment of war as an instrument of national policy will not be possible until the world community has become so organized that it can enforce justice among its members. The nonpacifist would, in general, accept what the pacifist says about the evils of war and the need for international organization. But he would claim that the pacifist has not faced squarely the possible evils that would result from the alternative policy of a nation's nonresistance in the face of external aggression: the possible mass deportations and even mass exterminations and the subjection of conquered peoples to totalitarian regimes that would suppress just those values which the pacifist stands for.

      Pacifists may claim that these evils can be met by nonviolence, i.e., the general attitude of friendliness and benevolence which, it is claimed, may disarm even the most savage aggressors. Nonviolence could also mean nonviolent resistance, which relies on the difficulties and inconvenience that can be caused to the conqueror or oppressor by a general refusal of the public to cooperate. But 20th-century history shows a striking number of occasions on which nonviolent tactics such as these entirely failed to disarm the enemy or even to preserve the communities practicing them. Pacifist Christian sects have often been the objects of the most ruthless persecution in a time period stretching from the European Middle Ages to the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. The story of the persecution of the Jews over many centuries is only too familiar, though for generations they practiced nonviolence toward their persecutors. It seems that pacifist or nonviolent methods can only be effective against a power that has no very strong motives for going to extremes of suppression or one that is governed at least in part by the same moral scruples that actuate the pacifists themselves. It seems clear to most nonpacifists that complete nonresistance to external aggression would sooner or later lead to foreign domination of one's country, perhaps by the most fanatical and ruthless powers.

      Personal pacifism is a relatively common phenomenon compared to national pacifism. Members of several small Christian sects who try to literally follow the precepts of Jesus Christ have refused to participate in military service in many nations and have been willing to suffer the criminal or civil penalties that followed. Not all of these and other conscientious objectors are pacifists, but the great majority of conscientious objectors base their refusal to serve on their pacifist convictions. There are, moreover, wide differences of opinion among pacifists themselves about their attitude toward a community at war, ranging from the very small minority who would refuse to do anything that could help the national effort to those prepared to offer any kind of service short of actual fighting.

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