This argument that he ends with seems to undermine any of that voluntaryness stuff. I'm saying like, could it actually get you to cure a bad habit or at a societal level, improve the state of discourse? Could in principle, an fMRI set of studies, neuroscientific research actually help for that? You know, I have a ton of neuroscience colleagues who always get pissed off at me for all the things that we say on this podcast."
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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