This is an answer to a comment posted by jimw:
jimw wrote:
So is defending one's family against invasion and harm unjustified violence?
Ron Allen answers:
I wrote in a previous blog-message that the only defensible violence is defensive violence.
In the blog-message you are commenting on, I wrote that violence is never justified. Am I
contradicting my previous statement? Perhaps. But let's reason this through.
I believe that violence is never justified, but that defensive violence is defensible violence.
When I say that violence is never justified, I mean that violence is never morally justified,
although defensive violence can be legally excused, pardoned, condoned, overlooked, etc.
What is violence? Is defensive violence a case or example of violence? When we say
"defensive violence" are we using the word violence in a vague and loose sense, detached
from its true sense?
If you defend your self, your family, your friend, or a stranger against criminal assault,
invasion, harm, attack, etc., then does your action constitute violence? Does your action
violate any law? Does your action violate any rights? Violence is a violation. We do violence to another when we violate them. A criminal act is an act that violates another.
When I say that violence is never justified, I am equating the noun violence with the noun
violation. Violating another person is never justified. Is the use of defensive violence an act
which violates the person or the property of one who is using aggressive and assertive
violence? Is defensive violence equivalent to violence? If there is no violation of another,
then is there violence? If stopping criminal violence is not a violation of the criminal, then is
the use of necessary violence to stop unnecessary violence an act of violence per se?
What is necessary is not criminal, culpable, unlawful, etc. What is morally and legally
obligatory cannot also be a moral or legal violation, or an act of violence. Defensive violence
is a moral and legal imperative. If I do not intend violence, but rather intend to stop violence,
then what looks like violence is not really violence. Offensive violence is intentional and
purposeful violence, and so is an act of unnecessary violence; defensive violence is not
deliberate or premeditated violence, and so is an act of necessary violence. Defensive
violence is necessary violence, and therefore is not a violation. If a defensive or protective
action is a legally-defensible and morally-justifiable use of violence, then it is not a violent
act, because no person is violated, no right is violated.
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