the point of the death penalty
The meaning of capital punishment—insofar as it has a meaning and is not a reflex—is concerned with the distribution of responsibility. The field of responsibility is limited to moral agents. Constituted authorities are not moral agents. Individuals, who are, may or may not be missing the requisite nerve. Usually, they […]
Category: capital punishment
On being blotted out
The thirteenth shot…
What is wrong with avenging justice?
To hurt with love…
Notes on Jean Hampton’s moral educationist theory of punishment
Mommy has a license to kill, Kant said so
Why mother’s may kill, but governments may not…
A world too small for the two of us…
Bedau argues that opposition to the death penalty cannot be utterly unconditional.1 He asks us to imagine a world where the execution of a murderer would miraculously bring back to life the innocent victim. Could we still oppose the penalty on principle?
I don’t know, could we? I find it somehow easier to imagine a world […]
Make them squirm
In what way is capital punishment like a wedding? Not in the way you think.
When it’s ok to kill a person
If you are going to have capital punishment, this is how the logic of retributivism requires it should be done.
Barbarization
Capital punishment and barbarization
