Introduction to Song’s “Persuasion vs. Coercion or Persuasion and Coercion”

I am happy to have been invited to add some brief introductory comments to the wonderful paper by Jiying Song and the essay by Robert K. Greenleaf which is included. To start, Song’s paper is a powerful engagement of Robert K. Greenleaf’s essay, “Overcome Evil with Good,” which appeared in the May 15, 1977 edition of Friends Journal. While Greenleaf addressed in several of his writings the themes of persuasion, manipulation, and coercion, and contrasted Mahatma Gandhi’s and John Woolman’s approaches to change, nowhere did he do so as fully and passionately as he did in the original Friends Journal essay, which Jiying has included here as part of her analysis.