FALL 2007 HONORS COURSES

HONR 359B Alternatives to Violence
(grading S/F)
Monday, 3:00-5:30 p.m.
Colman McCarthy, Lecturer in University Honors; Columnist

"It is one thing to have the courage of your convictions but quite another to challenge them."
(Friedrich Nietzsche)

All of us are called on to be peacemakers, whether in our personal or in our political lives. Yet, few have the skills or ideas to create the conditions in which peace can result. Courses in non-violence are rarely taught in schools, and non-violence is rarely used by governments as a means to settle conflicts. We seem helpless, to have no choice but reliance on fists, guns, armies, and bombs. A violent crime is committed every seventeen seconds in the U.S. The leading cause of injury among American women is being beaten at home by a man. Congress gives the Pentagon $800 million dollars a day–$13,000 a second–to spend on military programs.

The course offers a study of the methods, history, and practitioners of nonviolence. An objective of the course is to study nonviolence as a force for change, both among nations and among individuals faced with violence in their daily lives.

Readings will be supplied by the instructor. Grades are based on two papers. Class discussions are expected, and dissent is welcomed. One skeptic enlivens the class more than a dozen passive agreers. Guest speakers who believe in nonviolence will participate from time to time during the semester.