Abstract

This anthology comprises a collection of papers given at a conference on reason and violence at Northern Illinois University in spring 1970. The essays run the gamut from philosophy to sociology and from linguistic analysis to phenomenology. "Violence, Technology and the Body Politic" is a phenomenological and sociological discussion of violence in a technological society. "Violence, Legal Sanctions and Law Enforcement" provides an interesting and valuable discussion of the notion of violence followed by a justification of the use of violence in a democracy. A discussion of the early chapters of The Book of Genesis in "Satan, Evil, and Good in History" is designed to show the importance of evil in the history of thought, while another interpretation of the myth of Satan in "Violence and the Retreat from Reason" is used to suggest a psychological and sociological explanation of violence in persons and communities respectively.