pacifism, (1) opposition to war, usually on moral or religious grounds, but sometimes on the practical ground (pragmatic pacifism) that it is wasteful and ineffective; (2) opposition to all killing and violence; (3) opposition only to war of a specified kind (e.g., nuclear pacifism).
Not to be confused with passivism, pacifism usually involves actively promoting peace, understood to imply cooperation and justice among peoples and not merely absence of war. But some (usually religious) pacifists accept military service so long as they do not carry weapons. Many pacifists subscribe to nonviolence. But some consider violence and/or killing permissible, say, in personal self-defense, law enforcement, abortion, or euthanasia. Absolute pacifism rejects war in all circumstances, hypothetical and actual. Conditional pacifism concedes war’s permissibility in some hypothetical circumstances but maintains its wrongness in practice. If at least some hypothetical wars have better consequences than their alternative, absolute pacifism will almost inevitably be deontological in character, holding war intrinsically wrong or unexceptionably prohibited by moral principle or divine commandment. Conditional pacifism may be held on either deontological or utilitarian (teleological or sometimes consequentialist) grounds. If deontological, it may hold war at most prima facie wrong intrinsically but nonetheless virtually always impermissible in practice because of the absence of counterbalancing right-making features. If utilitarian, it will hold war wrong, not intrinsically, but solely because of its consequences. It may say either that every particular war has worse consequences than its avoidance (act utilitarianism) or that general acceptance of (or following or compliance with) a rule prohibiting war will have best consequences even if occasional particular wars have best consequences (rule utilitarianism).
See also NONVIOLENC. R.L.H.