violence - lesson plan

This note last modified March 29, 2025

What is violence? Is Violence ever justified

– 10 minutes –

Flash debates activity?

– 30 minutes –

Deeper debates

– 50 minutes –

Wrap Up

  • Violence is force that takes away choice.
    • Objective Violence: Pervasive violence that is often mistaken for the way things are.
    • Symbolic violence: Hate speech, which defines how a group is perceived
    • Systemic violence: Violence inherent to the system.

This video by philosophy tube on protest and violence has a lot of ideas: (https://youtu.be/dh4G1Gjv7bA?si=qXQqPKSagrtFDorm)

What is self defense? How immediate does the harm have to be? What are some obvious examples where self defense is or isn’t justified? What are examples that toe the line, where the justification is less clear?

Is a CEO who intentionally pollutes committing violence on a community?

SUV makers have lobbied congress to avoid regulations. Is that violence? There are some people who deflate the tires of SUVs and large trucks because those large vehicles are deadlier to pedestrians. Is this justified?

Discuss the paradox of tolerance.

In Star Wars the death star is destroyed by the rebellion with thousands of maintenance workers, janitors, cooks, etc. on board. Is that a justified act? The U.S. commits war crimes, so is everyone associated with the military culpable? (Similarly, I’ll mention the concept of war crimes, but I won’t go into specific cases or detail)

The police are allowed to use violence for their job. Is this justified, and if so, why? Introduce the concept of the state’s monopoly on violence. (While I’ll mention the idea of police brutality, I won’t go deep into specific cases or be overly detailed, to avoid causing distress.)

Is a politician taking away someone’s healthcare a violent act? What if they start a war?

Is Batman ok?

premeditated self defense

(Right now I think this plan skews too hard towards “acts that you wouldn’t think are violent, but debatably are”. As I continue to build this plan, I’ll look for examples of people who thought their actions were justified, but weren’t, e.g. Germans who believed Jews were undermining German society)

  • muggings
    • stabbed, gives over money
    • money forcibly taken
    • money given, weapon shown
    • money given, no weapon shown
  • violent movies?
  • bully
    • hitting someone
    • spreading rumors
    • spreading rumors that cause someone to do self harm
  • medicine
    • poison someone they get sick for a week
    • steal someone’s medicine so they get sick for a week
    • raise the price of medicine
  • protest
    • shutting down a mine
    • destroying equipment
    • breaking into stores
  • poison
    • someone sneaks into people’s houses and poisons people
    • dumping poison in the water supply
    • dumping chemical factory waste into the water supply
  • war
    • a politician sending others to war
      • for a country’s defense?
      • to get resources
  • booby traps
  • vigilante justice
  • spanking your kids
  • racism
    • someone shoots someone because of their skin color
    • a politician says people of a certain race are dangerous. This inspires someone to go and shoot someone else.
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