There is a quote I do want to read his quote about he says so he's talking about the banger paper and our book that he loves. He suggests near the end of his book that in a properly designed society all criminality would be a problem for the physician rather than the judgeEnd quote: "This surely will not do the therapeutic state where prisons are called hospitals and jailers are called psychiatrists" It raises again all the old problems about the justification of coercion and its reconciliation with autonomy that we faced in worrying about punishment. But the people who are in prison would really deserve it.
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.
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