Category: Morality and Legality
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The New Jim Crow Again
Daniel M. writes: Coincidentally, I'm currently a TA for a class in which significant portions of this book have been assigned (a philosophy of law class, focusing on legal punishment). Alexander's main focus in the book is not incarceration (and related phenomena) in general, but the War on Drugs in particular. An important part of…
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Beckwith, Hitch, and the Foundations of Morality
Here. Excerpt: . . . [Christopher] Hitchens writes that he and other atheists “believe with certainty that an ethical life can be lived without religion,” thus implying that he and others have direct and incorrigible acquaintance with a natural moral law that informs their judgments about what counts as an ethical life. But to speak…
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Alan Dershowitz on the Casey Anthony Trial
Here it is in toto with my comments in blue. "This case [is] about seeking justice for Caylee . . . ." So argued the prosecutor in the Casey Anthony murder case. He was wrong, and the jury understood that. A criminal trial is never about seeking justice for the victim. If it were, there…
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Farrell, “Tookie,” Hannity and Colmes, and Bad Arguments
My last post ended with a reference to "Tookie" Williams. Here is a post from the old Powerblogs site dated 29 November 2005: I just viewed the Stanley "Tookie" Williams segment on Hannity and Colmes. Williams, co-founder of the L.A. Crips gang, and convicted of four brutal murders, faces execution on December 13th in California. …
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Capital Punishment Again
Philoponus e-mails: On this issue, we are on the same page–I think we should celebrate our agreements! In fact, I probably support a broader use of CP than you do. I think CP a condign punishment for things like aggravated sexual assault on a minor, aggravated assault with torture, etc. I know people…
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Three Arguments Against Capital Punishment Rebuilt?
A reader e-mails: I wondered whether I could rebuild the three arguments against capital punishment that you claimed to have demolished in your post: In 1), you say: If the wrong person has been executed, that person cannot be restored to life. Quite true. It is equally true, however, that if a person has been wrongly…
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Three Arguments Against Capital Punishment Demolished
1. One could be called the 'epistemological' argument: it can't be known that one accused of a capital crime is guilty. The argument sometimes takes this enthymematic form: P2. Capital punishment is sometimes inflicted on the innocent.ThereforeC. Capital punishment ought to be banned. But this argument is invalid without the auxiliary premise: P1. Any type of…
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Proceduralism: Lotteries, Elections, Trials
What is the essence of proceduralism? I suggest: the criteria by which we judge that such-and-such is the case are constitutive of what it is for such-and-such to be the case. Or perhaps: the norms governing the validity of the 'output' of a procedure are identical to the procedural rules whereby fair are distinguished from…
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On Being Guilty and Being Found Guilty
Blogging has been good to me. I have met a number of very interesting and intellectually stimulating characters via the blogosphere. I had breakfast with four of them last Sunday morning: Peter L., Mike V., Carolyn M. and Seldom Seen Slim. Topics included logic and existence, the concept of sin, the question why be moral, and…
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Libertarians and Drug Legalization
Libertarians often argue that drug legalization would not lead to increased drug use. I find that preposterous, and you should too. There are at least three groups of people who are dissuaded from drug use by its being illegal. 1. There are those who respect the law because it is the law. 'It's against the law' carries…
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Too Many Laws
You've heard me say it before. Laws should be few in number, rational in content, enforceable, and enforced. As it is, we have too many laws, indeed, too many 'Ls': too many laws, lawyers, legislators (most of whom are lawyers), and liberals. How can a government claim to be representative of the people when it…
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Supererogation and Suberogation
It would be neat if all actions could be sorted into three jointly exhaustive classes: the permissible, the impermissible, and the obligatory. These deontic modes would then be analogous to the alethic modes of possibility, impossibility, and necessity. Intuitively, the permissible is the morally possible, that which we may do; the impermissible is the morally…
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Mel Gibson, Misplaced Moral Enthusiasm, and Real Threats
Mel Gibson is in the news again. What I said about him on 1 August 2006 bears repeating: What's worse: Driving while legally drunk at 87 miles per hour in a 45 mph zone, or making stupid anti-Semitic remarks? The former, obviously. And yet a big stink is being made about Gibson's drunken rant. I call…
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Church, State, and Arizona SB 1070
E. J. Montini of the Arizona Republic reports that ". . . one of the lawsuits challenging SB 1070 is based on the notion that the law inhibits First Amendment freedom to worship." As Montini correctly states, "Among other things, SB 1070 makes it a crime to knowingly transport, harbor, conceal or shield an illegal…