It Serves you Right

Philosophy ◽  
1962 ◽  
Vol 37 (142) ◽  
pp. 293-306 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Manser
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Good Starting Point

In this paper I want to examine the notion of desert, which seems to have been neglected by contemporary philosophers. Apartfrom its interest in its own right, it is important to be clear about the meaning of the word if there is to be any understanding of the idea of punishment. And that we are confused over the whole issue of punishment is obvious both from the remarks of professional philosophers and from the comments of the ‘man in the street’. Because of this confusion, the discussion of any actual punishment seems to take place between two parties who never get to grips with the arguments of the other, as in the whole debate over the death penalty. To one set of people, it is obvious that the retention of hanging depends to a large extent on the question of its effectiveness in deterring murderers; to another it is equally obvious that the murderer ‘deserves’ to hang, and that there is no more to be said about the matter. Capital punishment is not a good starting-point for a discussion of punishment in general, for death is clearly unique among penalties; in addition, the topic gives rise inevitably to much sentimentality and resulting muddle-headedness.

The Tolstoy Connection in Bakhtin

PMLA ◽  
1985 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caryl Emerson
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Good Reader ◽  
Death In Literature ◽  
Binary Model ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

Mikhail Bakhtin's work on Dostoevsky is well known. Less familiar, perhaps, is Bakhtin's attitude toward the other great Russian nineteenth-century novelist, Leo Tolstoy. This essay explores that “Tolstoy connection,” both as a means for interrogating Bakhtin's analytic categories and as a focus for evaluating the larger tradition of “Tolstoy versus Dostoevsky.” Bakhtin is not a particularly good reader of Tolstoy. But he does make provocative use of the familiar binary model to pursue his most insistent concerns: monologism versus dialogism, the relationship of authors to their characters, the role of death in literature and life, and the concept of the self. Bakhtin's comments on these two novelists serve as a good starting point for assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the Bakhtinian model in general and suggest ways one might recast the dialogue between Tolstoy and Dostoevsky on somewhat different, more productive ground.

scholarly journals DEATH IN THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF J. DERRIDA: TERRORISM, SECRECY, DEATH PENALTY AND THE CRISIS OF THE MODERN NATIONAL STATE

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-197
Author(s):  
George Bakhtin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Nation State ◽  
Sovereign State ◽  
The Enlightenment ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Enlightenment Project ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Integral Feature ◽  
Modern Nation State

The article outlines the main crisis points and trends in the development of the modern nation-state. Special attention is paid to the consideration of the phenomenon of terrorism as an inevitable product of the Enlightenment project. The coronavirus pandemic has made the problem points more relevant, calling into question not only the essence of democracies, but also the irreversibility of the processes of globalization. The author suggests following the logic of the argumentation of the French philosopher J. Derrida, who preferred to deconstruct the power discourse in order to find an answer to the question: how and to what extent is it possible to combat violence and terror, the products of modern Western civilization. The article consistently examines the prerequisites for understanding death not only as a secret rooted in antiquity and associated with the classical paradigm of philosophizing, phenomenology, Heideggerianism and existentialism, but also as an economy of mourning for the dead, which is close to psychologism and Freudianism. The focus is concentrated on the study of the mechanisms of the sovereign state that help it to claim comprehensive possession of the moment of death for a person sentenced to death. Capital punishment - an instrument of control on the part of sovereignty - is interpreted as the core of the theological and political tradition that determines the orthogenesis of any nation-state. Finally, the author considers the concept of the “heart of the other” as a starting point for the fight against abuse and for debunking phantasms and illusions that are an integral feature of the modern political organism. It is the deconstruction of the death penalty that is the key subject touched upon by the author of the article.

Undoing Death I

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian O'Donnell
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Violence ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Average Period

Capital punishment has been described as a ‘lottery’, implying that it operates at random; but in Ireland a pattern can be discerned. Murderers who avoided execution fell into one of six categories, with a clear gradient in how sympathetically they were viewed, as indicated by the duration of their coercive confinement and the likelihood that mercy would be recommended. At one end of the scale were those who destroyed an unwanted child, 92 per cent of whom aroused the sympathy of judge and jury and who were denied their liberty for 44 months, on average. At the other extreme were those whose treatment was capricious, only 20 per cent of whom received recommendations to mercy and whose average period of coercive confinement was 115 months. This chapter explores cases where the death penalty was imposed for the murder of an infant (usually, but not always, by the mother), romantic entanglements that had lethally soured, and sexual violence resulting in death.

Coupled Dynamic and Static Analysis of Typhoon TLP Accident During Extreme Environmental Conditions

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Joelsas Timerman ◽  
Marcio Araujo de Campos ◽  
Kazuo Nishimoto ◽  
Oscar Augusto Brito
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Conditions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Loss Of Stability ◽  
Failure Investigation ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Hurricane Season ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
Offshore Industry ◽  
Recent Project ◽  
The Impact

An important path to reviewing technology is through failure investigation, which enables understanding of appropriate levels of safety and assurance of design criteria. In the occurrence of extreme environmental conditions in which most units respond well or at least satisfactorily, the assessment of exception cases can be taken as a good starting point for the failure investigation mentioned above. Hence, especially on account of hurricanes Rita and Katrina, the 2005 hurricane season, which had a notable impact on offshore industry at Gulf of Mexico region, can be taken as a promising scenario to assess the losses and bring out cases to be more carefully appraised. It is the case of the TLP Typhoon found upside down after the passage of Rita. Being the only unit located at a significant water depth which followed recent project standards, the case naturally came to the fore. This paper addresses an investigative analysis held out in order to establish and analyze the possible causes that resulted on the capsizing of the referred unit. The investigation focuses on two major paths which were selected as being the most probable and also had feasibility to be carried out — one that analyzes a possible lack of displacement due to the passage of a hurricane wave and the consequent loss of stability of the TLP and the other, concentrated on a dynamic analysis of the unit under the impact of the hurricane metocean conditions. This second analysis focuses on obtaining the tension on the tethers stating if either they suffered excessive loads causing them to break or lack of it, causing compression and possible buckling.

scholarly journals Permissibility of Death Penalty as a Hermeneutic Dilemma

Verbum Vitae ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 311-326
Author(s):  
Michał Kosche
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Catholic Church ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Common Good ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right

The notion of moral fairness of application of capital punishment is stretched between two poles of opposite interpretative meanings. On the one hand, there is an imperative related to maintaining the social order and good that justifies in some specific cases killing an individual for the good of the community; on the other hand, there is the message of the Gospel about holiness of each human life. In this regard, at the attempt to investigate the fairness of death penalty, a certain hermeneutic tension related to the overlapping of rights and obligations both with regard to the criminal and society that needs to be protected against him or her. The starting point of this article is an outlook on death penalty with due regard of a ‘hermeneutic charge’ contained both in the duty to protect common good and each individual’s life. Next, the ‘genuine paradox’ was analysed that emerges in a situation where the right to live and the right to protect overlap. All the considerations are concluded with a question whether the recent abolitionist interpretation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church should be classified as the continuity hermeneutic or rather the discontinuity hermeneutic.

De Covid-19-pandemie kan een gesprek rondom het levenseinde faciliteren

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. VAN DE WIEL ◽  
K. BOMBEKE ◽  
J. WENS ◽  
P. VANCLOOSTER ◽  
V. MERTENS ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
End Of Life ◽  
Healthcare Providers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Do Not Resuscitate ◽  
Early Care ◽  
Good Communication ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Hospital Bed ◽  
Good Starting Point ◽  
The One

The Covid-19 pandemic could facilitate an end-of-life conversation The new “severe acute respiratory syndrome” coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) is testing our health care system in several ways. The need for clear end-of-life conversation is, more than ever, emphasized. The potential overcrowding in health facilities creates an important ethical dilemma about which patient can occupy which hospital bed. Most caregivers understand the importance of good communication and documentation of end-of-life conversations, yet few will conduct those conversations. Often, the emphasis lies on obtaining a “do not resuscitate” code (DNR), rather than exploring the patient’s care goals and values. Early care planning (ECP) focuses on those care goals and values. On the one hand, the COVID-19 pandemic is a good starting point for initiating conversations about end-of-life. On the other hand, there are important practical limitations regarding the adequate execution of those conversations. The current pandemic teaches us that ECP should be a central part of our clinical practice. It is important that healthcare providers take responsibility for identifying and initiating those patients who would benefit from such conversations.

Reading the ‘lay of the land’: intercessory advocacy and causal process in the HIV/AIDS treatment and death penalty abolitionist campaigns

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Noakes
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Crime Control ◽  
The Other ◽  
Treatment Programs ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Causal Process ◽  
The Rule Of Law ◽  
Improve Treatment ◽  
Hiv Aids

The cases presented in this chapter—those to improve care for the HIV positive and to abolish capital punishment—jointly call attention to the need to pay close attention to sequence and causal force in TAN campaigns. The HIV/AIDS campaign is an example of ‘intercessory advocacy,’ in which a campaign seized upon an opportunity to play a role in a state-led effort to improve treatment programs. By packaging its message in a manner palatable to the state, it was able to play a role in crafting China’s emergent anti-HV strategy. The campaign to abolish capital punishment, on the other hand, exercised very little effect on China’s much publicized effort to reduce reliance of on the death penalty. Rather, the scaling back of the death penalty is driven mostly by domestic political considerations, namely a desire to retain the practice of capital punishment for purposes of crime control while simultaneously strengthening the rule of law by introducing greater accountability into the death penalty process through the highly publicized policy of ‘kill fewer, kill carefully.’

scholarly journals O PRAWNOKARNEJ OCHRONIE NASCITURUSA W III STATUCIE LITEWSKIM

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
Sławomir Godek
Keyword(s):  
Pregnant Woman ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Criminal Responsibility ◽  
German Law ◽  
The Other ◽  
Right To Life ◽  
The Third ◽  
Criminal Protection ◽  
The One

Legal and Criminal Protection of ‘nasciturus’ in the Third Lithuanian StatuteSummary The Third Lithuanian Statute of 1588 regulated the issue specified in the title only partly and quite inconsistently. On the one hand, the Third Statute introduced criminal responsibility for injuring a pregnant woman, which caused a miscarriage; nevertheless, the penalty was insignificant. On the other hand, the legislation stipulated that carrying out a capital punishment must be put off until a child’s birth, which shows the the Lithuanian legislator’s intention to respect the fetus’ right to life. The Statute also provided for the death penalty for abortion and infanticide; nevertheless - contrary to the German law applied in cities - it did notintroduce an explicit distinction between these two crimes. Another inconsistency of the Statute is a lack of punishment in case of a homicide of a bastard child.

Machinery of Death or Machinic Life

Derrida Today ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wills
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Knife Edge ◽  
Life And Death ◽  
Complex Relation ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Way

The notion of a ‘machinery of death’ not only underwrites abolitionist discourse but also informs what Derrida's Death Penalty refers to as an anesthesial drive that can be traced back at least as far as Guillotin. I read it here as a symptom of a more complex relation to the technological that functions across the line dividing life from death, and which is concentrated in the question of the instant that capital punishment (at least in order to be distinguished from torture) requires. Further indications of such a relation include the forms of automatic machinism that regulate, on one hand, the generalisable certainty that death occurs (in tension with the singular death of each convict), and on the other, the discursive contagion that the death penalty generates. But it can be analysed most productively in the way in which the putative instantaneity of an execution reveals how life is severed from, but also perhaps tethered to death by means of a machinery of time; how that machinery of time ‘abandons’ its indifference in order to decide the moment of death by execution, and at the same time, by contriving an instant at which death takes over from life, produces the uncanny result of having life and death meet on the same knife-edge.

Does Viewing a Televised Execution Affect Attitudes Toward Capital Punishment?

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-424 ◽  
Author(s):  
GARY N. HOWELLS ◽  
KELLY A. FLANAGAN ◽  
VIVIAN HAGAN
Keyword(s):  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
The Other ◽  
Control Film ◽  
Alternative Version

Two hundred and ninety one registered California voters completed Peterson and Thurstone's Attitude Toward Capital Punishment scale. About half of the participants then viewed a videotape of two executions, and the other participants watched a nature film. All of the respondents then completed an alternative version of the capital punishment attitude scale. Significantly more viewers of the execution videotape reduced their support for capital punishment than did viewers of the control film, suggesting that resumption of public (i.e., televised) executions may somewhat reduce support for the death penalty.

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