It is widely thought that in politics, non-violent resistance is morally and strategically superior to violent resistance. This paper investigates the moral superiority claim.
The moral superiority claim is commonly presented in one of three forms, each of which, however, faces substantial difficulties:
1. Non-violence is sometimes said to be morally superior because it is strategically superior. However, this makes the moral value of non-violence a matter of empirical contingency, and it locates the value of non-violence not in non-violent action itself but rather in its consequences.
2. Non-violence is often presented as a requirement on morally permissible political resistance. But it is also widely held that violent resistance, including armed revolution, is sometimes permissible, and even sometimes the appropriate course of action. If violence is sometimes permissible, however, then non-violence cannot be always required.
3. Conversely, commitment to principled non-violence is also often presented as a form of moral heroism. But while leading exponents emphasize the strength and courage needed for a successful commitment to non-violence, none limit the path of non-violence to those who are morally exceptional. But insofar as non-violence should be pursued by all political resisters, it cannot be that it is the path reserved for the heroic.
The aim of this paper is to articulate an appealing version of the moral superiority claim -- one that avoids the pitfalls of each of its common forms. According to the view I develop here, non-violence is *graceful*, in the sense that it is an unmerited gift by those who resist oppression to those who commit or uphold it. Such a gift represents, I claim, commitment to a valuable relationship. Contra the common forms of the moral superiority claim, this view can explain (i) the non-contingent and non-derivative moral value of non-violence, (ii) the moral permissibility of both violent and non-violent resistance, and (iii) what makes non-violence morally praiseworthy, and perhaps even supererogatory, while still something that, in many cases, ought to be pursued.
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