Murphy: There is the attack that you might make on whether or not people are fundamentally motivated by self-interest. And then there is what would follow from that which is I think the steps that Rawls wants to take you on, he believes are motivated by rational like good reasons. Murphy: It could be that that first step is just Rawls will never get off the ground because that's just a dumb conception of how humans are and it's a good definition. Or it could be that the steps after that are flawed rationality.
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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