According to the gunman theory many revolutions do not take place, in spite of the fact that the majority stands to gain if they can put an end to the oppression exercised over it, since a gunman can see to it that egoistic individuals have no incentive to take part in the revolution. Champions of the idea that there is a paradox of revolution go further: Even if individuals care about the common good, they will not take action. This is wrong. If they care about the common good revolution will take place. This is good news. The bad news is, however, that those conditions, as we find them in social psychological literature, that are helpful to the revolutionary cause tend to get undermined by the oppressive system when it is well functioning.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-10206 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Tännsjö, Torbjörn |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Filosofiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Article in journal, info:eu-repo/semantics/article, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | South African Journal of Philosophy, 0258-0136, 2007, 26:2, s. 228-238 |
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