PHIL 150 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Intuit, Civilizing Mission
Document Summary
Common sense argument for deterrence: what people fear more will have greater deterrent effect on them, people fear death more than any other humane punishment, therefore, the death penalty deters more than life in prison. At some point deterrence tops out and there is no greater effect: people who commit murder are so sufficiently desocialized that we cannot intuit what they will do. Kant"s claim: a just society must execute every single murderer. The death penalty is morally permissible, but we still ought not to accept it. He claims that the retribution argument gives us the right to execute, not the duty to. It is at least morally permissible to also choose to be merciful. The criminal does not have the power to morally compel us to any action. It merely sanctions are right to do it. Creating a duty would give the criminal too much authority over our behavior.
