There's so much that I'd want to know about what is going on with a low volition condition. Like, is it something like, you know, when you're sleepwalking or when you have like alien hand syndrome and one hand is like going crazy? Right. Because the emotion stuff, it's just like, well, now it's just arguments that lead in the end to doubting that anything really is under volitional control. So this kind of analysis to say like, is this person acting voluntarily or not? I really don't think that there's anything in the brain.
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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