Editing Pacifism (section)

====Greece====
In [[Ancient Greece]], pacifism seems not to have existed except as a broad moral guideline against violence between individuals. No philosophical program of rejecting violence between states, or rejecting all forms of violence, seems to have existed. [[Aristophanes]], in his play [[Lysistrata]], creates the scenario of an [[Athens|Athenian]] woman's anti-war sex strike during the [[Peloponnesian War]] of 431–404 BCE, and the play has gained an international reputation for its anti-war message. Nevertheless, it is both fictional and comical, and though it offers a pragmatic opposition to the destructiveness of war, its message seems to stem from frustration with the existing conflict (then in its twentieth year) rather than from a philosophical position against violence or war. Equally fictional is the nonviolent protest of [[Hegetorides]] of [[Thasos]]. [[Euripides]] also expressed strong anti-war ideas in his work, especially ''[[The Trojan Women]]''.<ref name="fsn">"Peace, War and Philosophy" by F. S. Northedge, in [[Paul Edwards (philosopher)|Paul Edwards]], ''The Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', Volume 6, Collier Macmillan, 1967 (pp.&nbsp;63–67).</ref>

In ''[[Plato's Republic]]'' [[Socrates]] makes the pacifistic argument that a just person would not harm anyone.<ref name="Purshouse 2010 p. 20">{{cite book | last=Purshouse | first=Luke | title=Plato's Republic: A Reader's Guide | publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing | series=Reader's Guides | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-4411-9339-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VImxAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA20 | access-date=13 December 2023 | page=20}}</ref> In [[Plato]]'s earlier work [[Crito]] Socrates asserts that it is not moral to return evil with further evil, an original moral conception, according to [[Gregory Vlastos]], that undermines all justifications for war and violence.<ref name="Cady 2010 p. 5">{{cite book | last=Cady | first=Duanne | title=From Warism to Pacifism: A Moral Continuum | publisher=Temple University Press | series=UPCC book collections on Project MUSE | year=2010 | isbn=978-1-4399-0313-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lRVFs85rPuAC&pg=PA5 | access-date=13 December 2023 | page=5}}</ref>