Abstract

This chapter explores how the dialectical approaches by Mao Zedong and Martin Luther King, Jr., may assist philosophical analysis of nonviolent social change applied to achievement of economic justice and positive peace in this life. “Martin and Mao” are both interested in the theoretical and practical problems of creating conditions for a world where economic justice and positive peace may be pursued from within dialectical processes that are, in Mao’s words, “non-antagonistic.” The dialectical logics of Mao and King reveal a convergence upon the claim that contradictions with antagonistic aspects can and should be transformed into non-antagonistic ones. Both philosophers value unity as an end, and both argue that our conceptions of purpose must aim toward a world where practical conditions of unity are taken seriously. Therefore, we must aim toward economic justice and posisdtive peace.