This episode of Very Bad Wizards is brought to you again by better help online therapy. Better Help will connect you to a licensed professional therapist in under 48 hours. Try just go to betterhelp.com slash V-B-W today to get 10% off of your first month of therapy. All right, we'll be right back to talk about Marxism and retribution.
Here’s an episode with something for both of us – a healthy serving of Kantian rationalism for David with a dollop of Marxist criminology for Tamler. We discuss and then argue about Jeffrie Murphy’s 1971 paper “Marxism and Retribution.” For Murphy, utilitarianism is non-starter as a theory of punishment because it can’t justify the right of the state to inflict suffering on criminals. Retributivism respects the autonomy of individuals so it can justify punishment in principle – but not in practice, at least not in a capitalist system. So it ends up offering a transcendental sanction of the status quo. We debate the merits of Murphy’s attack on Rawls and social contract theory under capitalism, along with the Marxist analysis of the roots of criminal behavior.
Plus – the headline says it all: Blame The Brain, Not Bolsonaro, For Brazil’s Riots.
Sponsored By:
Support Very Bad Wizards
Links: