'Virtuous' Violence of Identity Groups

Daniel Rothbart, Professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, will present Virtuous’ Violence of Identity Groups on Sunday, November 15 at 12:30pm at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax, 2709 Hunter Mill Road in Oakton (in the Program Building Chapel, the large white building to the left as you leave the parking lot).

The prolonged violence in Syria, Israel, Palestine, Iraq and Ukraine today raises the general question—why? Why has violence broken out and persisted in these countries? Recent findings in the social psychology of group violence reveal one possible answer. In this session we present such findings, with attention to the character of identity-based conflicts. We examine why some identity groups—religious, ethnic, nationalistic—resort to violence as a means for settling disputes with their enemy, while other groups do not. Examples from contemporary conflicts will be presented.

After earning his Ph. D. in philosophy from Washington University, St. Louis, Prof. Rothbart was a visiting research scholar at Linacre College, Oxford, at Dartmouth College, and at University of Cambridge. Professor Rothbart specializes in identity-based conflicts, ethics and conflict, the causes of protracted violence, and civilians in war. He is currently director of the Program on Ethics and Conflict that focuses on the morality of bringing peace to war-torn regions of the world.

Specializing on the conflicts in Sudan, he is also director of the Sudan Task Group—focusing on peace-building in this war-torn region of Africa. His current research centers on the power of moral emotions, such as humiliation, as a source of violence and of compassion as a source of peace.

This is a free event. The public is invited to attend.

For directions: https://uucf.org/directions/

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday!