Study Guide
Cheyney Ryan - A Defense of Pacifism
1. How does Ryan respond to Narveson's criticism of pacifism? In particular,
what does Ryan say about how far one can go to defend a right one has?
2. What does Ryan see as the point of Orwell's story of the half-dressed
man?
3. According to Ryan, why is pacifism a moral position and not just a personal
idiosyncrasy?
4. What motivates pacifism, according to Ryan?
5. What is Ryan's point in quoting the aesthetic fascist?
6. Ryan says that pacifists intend to acknowledge through their attitudes
and actions the status others have as persons and fellow creatures. What
does Ryan say to the objection to this view that sometimes killing is a means
of such acknowledgment?
7. According to Ryan, in what way is the pacifist's position no worse than
the non-pacifist's? How are they both facing a difficult or perhaps
even an insoluble dilemma?