religious crackpots in public life, was Re: The heart of a leftist

Charles Brown CharlesB at CNCL.ci.detroit.mi.us
Tue Jul 11 06:52:54 PDT 2000



>>> kenneth.mackendrick at utoronto.ca 07/10/00 04:20PM >>>

On Mon Jul 10 15:11:20 2000 JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:


> The example does not support the conclusion. If I take an umbrella that
belonds to someone else, thinking that it belongs to me, I have not committed a crime, but that is not because private property is unjust or some such, but because I lack the requisite mental state for theft, the intention to permanantly derive someone else of his property.

Ok, bad example. Say I kill someone in self-defence: if we describe this as a violation permitted by the law, we have a paradox.

____________

CB: The way "they" say it is that self-defense is a complete defense to a charge of unlawful killing.

________

The paradox disappears however if the moment we realize that the case of necessity is not an instance of the law. In short, in such a case the judge would declar that no law has been violated, not that I was legally justified in violating the law... that's all.

ken



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list