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Moral Theory and Capital Punishment
Tom Sorell (Author)
9780631153221, Wiley
Paperback / softback, published 15 October 1987
184 pages
25 x 20 x 1.5 cm, 0.255 kg
"Mr Sorell writes in a brisk and lively style: his readers will be grateful. At the same time he has produced a philosophically sophisticated exercise in moral rhetoric. He has been patient and lucid in his effort to connect moral themes with punitive policy, something few philosophers have tried and none achieved with better effect. American readers will learn from his dissection of parliamentary debate on the dealth penalty, while others will profit from his critique of the Supreme Court's major death penalty ruling." Hugo Adam Bedau, Tufts University
Tom Sorell's book concerns not simply capital punishment but the use of philosophical theories of right and wrong. He argues that such theories are not to be regarded as giving expert knowledge of value, still less a definite technique for resolving practical dilemmas. Instead, they improve moral rhetoric and raise the standard of persuasive speech for and against capital punishment, abortion and euthanasia by introducing higher standards of justification for claims about these practices. Moral Theory and Capital Punishment illustrated how philosophical theory can be applied to questions of wide public concern. It introduces the leading moral theories proposed by philosophers and derives from them a variety of arguments for and against the death penalty. The conclusion reached is that capital punishment is morally justifiable in certain cases but extremely difficult to introduce safely into general legislation.
Preface vii Acknowledgements ix CHAPTER ONE Killing: moral rhetoric and moral philosophy 1 1 Permissible killing 1 2 Principles and their sources 3 3 The rhetoric of life and death 7 4 Moral philosophy: normative ethics 13 5 Distrusting moral theory 16 6 Philosophy and impracticality 18 7 Exaggerated expectations 21 8 Philosophy and privileged access to the good 22 9 Philosophy and moral dilemmas 26 CHAPTER Two A selected controversy 30 1 Applying philosophy 30 2 Pleading for the death penalty 32 3 Arguments against capital punishment 44 4 The limitations of rhetoric again 51 CHAPTER THREE Moral theory and moral theories 56 1 Justification and moral theory 56 2 From theory to theories 62 3 Taking stock 77 CHAPTER Four Utilitarianism and the death penalty 80 1 Mill's speech 81 2 Glover's abolitionist leanings 92 3 Glover versus Mill 99 CHAPTER FIVE Cruel and unusual punishment? 102 1 On not turning back the clock 103 2 The American courts and the Eighth Amendment 107 3 Justice Brennan's opinion in Furman 110 4 From Furman to Gregg v. Georgia 118 5 Other arguments 120 CHAPTER SIX A Kantian approach 129 1 Crime and punishment in Kant's civil society 130 2 Kant on the death penalty 136 3 Taking stock 143 CHAPTER SEVEN Retributivism and Kant's retributivism 147 1 Some principles 147 2 Kant's theory and others 154 3 Conclusion 160 Index 165
Subject Areas: Society & culture: general [JF]
