Violence as a tool is already operating in the world before anyone takes it up: that fact alone neither justifies nor discounts the use of the tool. … - Judith Butler
" "Violence as a tool is already operating in the world before anyone takes it up: that fact alone neither justifies nor discounts the use of the tool. What seems most important, however, is that the tool is already part of a practice, presupposing a world conducive to its use; that the use of the tool builds or rebuilds a specific kind of world, activating a sedimented legacy of use. When any of us commit acts of violence, we are, in and through those acts, building a more violent world.
English
Collect this quote
About Judith Butler
Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and scholar whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of , queer theory, and literary theory.
Also Known As
Native Name:
Judith Pamela Butler
Alternative Names:
Judith P. Butler
•
Butler
Related quotes. More quotes will automatically load as you scroll down, or you can use the load more buttons.
Additional quotes by Judith Butler
To say that a life is grievable is to claim that a life, even before it is lost, is, or will be, worthy of being grieved on the occasion of its loss; the life has value in relation to mortality. One treats a person differently if one brings the sense of the grievability of the other to one’s ethical bearing toward the other. If an other’s loss would register as a loss, would be marked and mourned, and if the prospect of loss is feared, and precautions are thus taken to safeguard that life from harm or destruction, then our very ability to value and safeguard a life depends upon an ongoing sense of its grievability—the conjectured future of a life as an indefinite potential that would be mourned were it cut short or lost.
Try QuoteGPT
Chat naturally about what you need. Each answer links back to real quotes with citations.
The state monopolizes violence by calling its critics “violent”. [...] Hence, we should be wary about those who claim that violence is necessary to curb or check violence; those who praise the forces of law, including the police and the prisons, as the final arbiters. To oppose violence is to understand that violence does not always take the form of the blow.
Loading...