In the excerpt from Stephen Nathanson’s 1987 book entitled An Eye for an Eye?, he argues against the “eye for an eye” principle, or lex talionis. The principle states that the punishment given to criminals should be equal to what they did to their victims. Nathanson argues that there are two problems with this principle. First, it permits and justifies extremely immoral actions - rape and murder are not in any way morally permissible and people should not be subjected to such treatment. Second, it is extremely difficult and often impossible to apply to most cases. Making the punishment equal the crime in cases of drug trafficking, drunk driving, or unlawful possession is simply not possible, so therefore the principle crumbles and is revealed
to be a thinly-veiled disguise to support the death penalty. We can call the previous argument “equality retributivism” - punishments should equal the crimes. Nathanson then goes on to discuss the counter principle of proportional retributivism; that is to say, punishments should be proportional to the crime that was committed. This means that the worse the crime, the harsher the punishment should be. Proportional retributivism seems like a plausible argument at first, but upon deeper consideration we find that it still does not justify the death penalty. It tells us that severe crimes must be met with severe punishments, but it gives no guidance as to just how severe those punishments should be. The excerpt ends by discussing the symbolism of abolishing the death penalty. To justify the death penalty, this would mean that the subject has absolutely no human value or worth. This is simply not true, as all humans, regardless of actions or beliefs, have at least some worth and therefore have a right to live. We are to respect a human’s right to live, and therefore we cannot justify killing a murderer. (307)
The Killings by Andre Dubus Plot is defined as, "the authors arrangement of incidents in a story it is the organizing principle that controls the controls the order of events (Meyer,64). " The element of plot is heavily relied on in the short story, "The Killings" by Andre Dubus. The plot which is completely made inside the imagination of an author (Meyer,64), gives the audience important insight to people, places, and events in the story (Meyer,64) . "The Killings" provides a somewhat conventional plot pattern, where the character is confronted with a problem and is then led into a climax, which late leads to the resolution of the story (Meyer,65). The conventional plot is easy to follow and serves as a basis for movies and other forms of fictitious entertainment (Meyer,65).
In "The Ultimate Punishment: A Defense", why does the author believe maldistribution of punishment in itself does not make the death penalty unjust?
Leon F. Litwack is the author of Trouble in Mind. Litwack is an American historian and professor of history at the University of California at Berkeley. He was born in 1929 in Santa Barbara, California. In 1951, Litwack received is Bachelor Degree and then continued to further his education. In 1958, he received his Ph. D. from the University of California at Berkeley. Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele Commager wrote the book that sparked Litwack's curiosity in history. The book was The Growth of the American Republic. Litwack was in the eleventh grade when he first discovered his interest in history. In 1964, Litwack began teaching at the University of California, where he taught an excess of 30,000 students. Litwack has written other books besides Trouble in Mind. One of the books he wrote was Been in the Storm So Long: The Aftermath of Slavery in 1979. In 1980, Litwack was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for history of this book and in 1981 he was the winner of the National Book Award. He also wrote North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free State, 1790-1860, Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography in America, and The Harvard Guide to African-American History. Litwack has also won many including, the Francis Parkman Prize, the American Book Award, and he was elected to the presidency of the Organization of American Historians. In addition to this, Litwack has been an outstanding teacher and received two notable teaching awards. Litwack's first teaching position was at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, where he taught from 1958 to 1964. He also taught at the University of South Carolina, Louisiana State University, and the University of Mississippi. As one can see, not only has Litwack been an exceptionally outstanding author, he has also been a very popular and influential teacher.
“Corruption is like a ball of snow, once it’s set a rolling it must increase (Charles Caleb Colton).” Colton describes that once corruption has begun, it is difficult to stop. Corruption has existed in this country, let alone this very planet, since the beginning of time. With corruption involves: money, power, and favoritism. Many people argue today that racism is still a major problem to overcome in today’s legal system. American author (and local Chicago resident) Steve Bogira jumps into the center of the United States justice system and tells the story of what happens in a typical year for the Cook Country Criminal Courthouse, which has been noted as one of the most hectic and busiest felony courthouses in the entire country. After getting permission from one of the courthouse judges’ (Judge Locallo) he was allowed to venture in and get eyewitness accounts of what the American Legal System is and how it operates. Not only did he get access to the courtroom but: Locallo’s chambers, staff, even his own home. In this book we get to read first hand account of how America handles issues like: how money and power play in the court, the favoritism towards certain ethnic groups, and the façade that has to be put on by both the defendants and Cook County Workers,
In John Demos’s The Unredeemed Captive, he must have “lurched heavily through the drifts”1 of information, and sometimes lack there of, to explain the view points of the British colonials, the French colonials, and the Mohawk tribe members. The story begins in the Puritan town of Deerfield within the British colony of Massachusetts. during the late 1600s. With the start of another war between Britain and France, fighting breaks out in their colonies as well, including the Americas. The town of Deerfield if led by the minister John Williams whom the French Indians take for a prisoner exchange at a later date. The Indians ransack Deerfield and take many prisoners on the long, treacherous journey to Canada for the French colonists. Most families
Sometimes we can not always give what they deserve but, giving them less than what they deserve is unfair. The bible believes in an eye for an eye. Meaning you can kill someone who has killed. I believe in punishing murders and they should get nothing less than what they deserve, but an eye for an eye, to me, is not always the correct punishment. I am in favor of proportional retributivism because it allows flexibility within a range of murder cases. It would allow a more heinous murderer to receive the death penalty and a less severe murder criminal to receive life in prison without violating
Forgiveness is to stop feeling angry, to stop blaming someone for the way they made a person feel, and stop feeling victims of whatever wickedness was directed towards them. Is forgiveness necessary? Can everyone be forgiven despite the circumstances? If forgiveness depends on the situation, then is it necessary at all? Does forgiveness allow someone to continue their life in peace? Is forgiving someone who causes physical pain to someone, as a pose to forgiving someone who murdered a member of the family the same? If someone can forgive one of these acts so easily can the other be forgiven just as easy? Forgiveness allows for someone to come to terms with what they have experienced. In the case of murder forgiveness is necessary because it allows for someone to be at peace with themselves knowing they no longer have to live with hatred. It also allows someone to begin a new life with new gained experience and different perspectives on life. Forgiveness is necessary from a moral perspective because it allows someone to get rid of hatred and find peace within him or herself to move on with their lives.
takes the form of “an eye for an eye”, meaning that the offender should be punished by an act of
“Without Conscience" by Robert D. Hare is one aimed towards making the general public aware of the many psychopaths that inhabit the world we live in. Throughout the book Hare exposes the reader to a number of short stories; all with an emphasis on a characteristic of psychopaths. Hare makes the claim that close monitoring of psychopathy are vital if we ever hope to gain a hold over Psychopathy- A disorder that affects not only the individual but also society itself. He also indicates one of the reasons for this book is order to correctly treat these individuals we have to be able to correctly identify who meets the criteria. His ultimate goal with the text is to alleviate some of the confusion in the increase in criminal activity by determining how my of this is a result of Psychopathy.
An Eye for an Eye was written by Stephen Nathanson. Mr. Nathanson, like many, is against the death penalty. Mr. Nathanson believes that the death penalty sends the wrong messages. He says that by enforcing the death penalty we “reinforce the conviction that only defensive violence is justifiable.” He also states that we must, “express our respect for the dignity of all human beings, even those guilty of murder.”
In the story, “Loves Executioner”, Yalom treats and old woman named “Thelma” that is overly obsessed with her a former therapist from ten years ago named Matthew. Yalom feeling though that he is drawn to the facets of her dilemma decides to do everything he can to empower Thelma move past the obsessions that had been wrecking havoc on her mental health. Although Thelma’s love obsession with her therapist, and her subjective experiences on life of what is preventing her from living in the present, Yalom attempts to treat a 70-year-old woman only to learn that being love executioner more complicated as he had anticipated.
A society that is ruled by liberty contains morals, morals that come with rights that must be respected in order to preserve integrity. In his article “A Right to do Wrong”, Ethics, vol. 92 (1981), pp. 21-39, Jeremy Waldron argues that if people in a society take moral rights seriously they must accept an individuals “right to do wrong” from a moral perspective. Having a choice to do wrong from a moral point of view creates diversity in a society which lead’s to development in the society as a whole. Waldron offers a paradox to explain his position on individuals having a moral right to act in ways that might be seen as wrong from a moral point of view. I will explain and outline Jeremy Waldron’s position on the idea of individuals having the moral right to do wrong, and I will also evaluate Jeremy Waldron’s position and demonstrate if there is really such a moral right using my views that will be enhanced by John Stewart Mill views.
The Outsider, written by Albert Camus, and The Trial, written by Franz Kafka, are two books that have been critically acclaimed since the time that they were published. There are critics that claim that The Outsider is a dull book, and is not even a read-worthy book. Other people claim that it shows us how society actually acts upon people who do not want to be like the rest of society. The Trial falls under the same kind of criticism; but both books, although written by different writers in a different époque, fall under the same kind of genre: Imprisoned Lives. In both The Outsider and The Trial there are many people who influence the protagonists in a positive and in a negative way, but none of those characters are as important as the priest. The priest, being of the same profession in both books and trying to accomplish the same kind of tasks, have a totally different effect on the two protagonists. In The Outsider the priest changes the whole attitude that Meursault has to life, whereas in The Trial the priest tells Joseph K. how his life actually is.
This short essay engages in a close reading of a passage of Emmanuel Levinas’s ‘The Face’ drawing on the concepts of identity and relational logics. Questions concerning the assumptions employed by Levinas about time, space and form of being will be asked of the text in order to create a dialogue with its meaning. The potential implications of these assumptions will also be explored through the consideration of hinge words and pivotal phrases. Tangible conclusions will not be drawn; however arguments will unfold which demonstrate the possibilities of this passage in regards to the creation of knowledge and the understanding of everyday ways of being.
The 66-mile forced march was cruel and it ended the lives of many American soldiers. In the book Tears In The Darkness The Story Of The Bataan Death March And It’s Aftermath, by Michael Norman and Elizabeth M. Norman, it give readers insight on how the Japanese soldier’s fought the Americans during the battle of World War II. A boy named Ben Steele was a soldier in this war. He enlisted because he wanted to see the world, and throughout this book the author tells the story through his eyes. This is a book that tells the story of the cruelty of the Bataan March and the battle between American and Filipino soldiers.