[lbo-talk] Death penalty (was: Singapore)

andie_nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Fri Oct 5 10:28:18 PDT 2012


No, I'm not familiar with that. My paper isn't mainly concerned with the death penalty or any institutionalized form of punishment. It is a long way from revenge as a form of justice to institutionalizing any policies of punishment in a legal system. I am mainly concerned with showing that revenge is a form if justice and how it works. Whether, to what extent, and how it might have a place in social policy, for example in legal punishment, are questions for another day.

Sent from my iPad

On Oct 5, 2012, at 11:31 AM, Shane Mage <shmage at pipeline.com> wrote:


>
> On Oct 5, 2012, at 12:18 PM, andie_nachgeborenen wrote:
>
>> I have a draft paper on revenge as a form of justice, not yet ready to be seen, in which I discuss the usual theories and propose my own. Revenge, I believe, as do most people, underlies the concept of retribution. I argue that revenge is a form of justice that has a logic of its own and is not mere bloodthirstiness. I don't try to link revenge into retribution and officially sanctioned punishment. My object is to just show that it is more than than lower brain blood lust and eligible in principle for consideration for a place In an account of punishment. I do not think that anyone except the handful of extreme utilitarians really reject revenge,although I do think revenge is poorly understood. In all modesty I think I may be the only person who understands it,as I have a novel account that is as far as I know quite original. I don't think lack of a generally accepted theoretical account disqualifies revenge or any deeply held consideration from potential inclusion in policy. I and many people who think about this are not pure revenge theorists; as federal and other sentencing laws provide, just deserts and proportionality, two revenge-based considerations, are generally balanced with other factors in arriving at what seems like a socially acceptable and more or less fair punishment for wrongdoing. So I think that it is is very rare that considerations if revenge are imposed with no regard to consequences and other factors.
>
> I hope your paper discusses the Marquis de Sade's justification for his opposition to the death penalty (which of course nearly got him executed and did get him confined to an insane asylum)--that each family has the responsibility to enact retribution for outrageous crimes, as in Pushtunwala (which, of course, he had never heard of).
>
> Shane Mage
>
>
> This cosmos did none of gods or men make, but it
> always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire,
> kindling in measures and going out in measures.
>
> Herakleitos of Ephesos
>
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________
> http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list