This issue examines the concept of violence. It argues that ethics are deeply imbued with violence, and explores the ambiguous relations between them. The argument is that Kantian ethics are based on the violent split Kant makes between the physical - which includes the body - and spiritual worlds.

This issue examines the concept of violence. It argues that ethics are deeply imbued with violence, and explores the ambiguous relations between them. The argument is that Kantian ethics are based on the violent split Kant makes between the physical - which includes the body - and spiritual worlds. This is why absolute ethical stances - for example that of Antigone, or of those who renounce their families in the name of a higher cause - are often perceived of as "inhuman". Some contributors then go on to draw parallels between Kantian ethics and those of Sade, while others discuss the contextualisation of violence - the same act, body piercing, can be viewed as savage ritual or urban chic.

Editorial, Renata Salecl
violence, ideality and cruelty, Etienne Balibar
anthropology and initiation, Henrietta Moore
cut in the body - from clitoridectomy to body art, Renata Salecl
perversion in public places, Juliet Flowers MacCannell
cars and scars, Parveen Adams
why did I eat daddy? Alain Abelhauser
where does power come from? Mladen Dolar
Kant with (or against) Sade? Slavoj Zizek
Lacan's heroines -Antigone and Synge de Coufontaine, Alenka Zupancic
the ate of Antigone - Lacan, Heidegger, and sexual differences, Cecilia Sjoholm
beheading the dead - rites of habeas corpus in Shakespeare's "Measure for Measure", Jane Malmo
the violence of irresponsibility - enigmas of medical ethics, Marinos Diamantides.