A Semantic study of violence

Violence is among the rare words which has two contrasting groups of meanings. On the one hand, it disturbs living; on the other hand, it is the source of the glorification of human nature. Hence, to distinguish the values of violence from the non-values, it is necessary to identify the semantic content of the word, so that one can distinguish violent actions from the necessary useful violence. To do so, this paper studies violence under two categories: the way it actually is, and the way it should be. In the first part, after defining violence, the paper tries to classify it into permitted and non-permitted violence, physical and non-physical violence, and personal and social violence. Then, the sources of violence in the present society being mentioned, some moral instructions have been proposed to replace violent behavior with merciful behavior.