Abstract
The received view in mainstream philosophy is that violence is an ‘act’, to be defined in terms of ‘force’ and ‘intentionality’. This approach regrettably and inexcusably tends to prioritise the agent performing the act of violence in question. This paper argues that we should resist this tendency, in order to prioritise the victim or survivor of violence, and her personal experience, not that of the perpetrator. Starting from an analysis of the devastating impact of violence that characterises the experience of sexual violation and its aftermath, based on the memoirs of Susan Brison (philosopher) and Alice Sebold (novelist), we will then proceed to argue that violence should not be thought of merely in terms of an ‘act’, but also as an ‘experience’, the difference being that an act is temporally determinate while an experience is temporally indeterminate. With the help of a phenomenological approach, we will argue that violence has time-indeterminate intended and unintended consequences; these are the ripples of violence. Finally, some of the moral, legal and political implications of acknowledging the temporal indeterminacy of violence will be highlighted.
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Notes
On the OED definition of violence, see Coady (2009) (see also Dewey, 2009).
du Toit argues that this phenomenological model allows us to detect six elements of damage or loss in the rape victims’ stories: (i) spirit injury; (ii) victim complicity; (iii) loss of voice (silencing); (iv) loss of moral rage, moral standing and agency; (v) homelessness or displacement; and (vi) alienation.
Salice (2014) argues that it is possible to determine the moment when an individual token of violence begins and when it ceases to obtain. He argues that an act of violence is ‘predestined’, in the sense that an act of violence comes to an end by itself with the end of the act of violence. In this paper we defend a slightly different position, highlighting the fact that the end of the act of violence does not bring the experience of violence to an end.
The term ‘victim’ is problematic of course, but we feel that alternative terms such as ‘survivor’ are equally problematic. On this issue, and its significance within feminist literature, see Lamb (1999).
On trauma, see Caruth (1996), Rothschild (2000), Kilby (2007).
For a more detailed account of violence as violation of integrity, see Bufacchi (2007, Chapter 2). Nussbaum (2000) also has a useful account of bodily integrity.
See the essays by Audi, Gert and Nielsen in Bufacchi (2009) (see also Honderich, 1989, 2002, 2003).
On restorative justice, and especially the importance of storytelling, see Miller (2011).
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Bufacchi, V., Gilson, J. the ripples of violence. Fem Rev 112, 27–40 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2015.49
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/fr.2015.49