Arguments against capital punishment
John locke human nature!
Locke on the right to punish
Notes for Tuesday, October 7, 2014
Main points
Locke begins with an assumption that everyone has natural rights that protect their lives, limbs, liberty, and property.
These are claim rights: having the means that others are obliged not to deprive you of your life, limbs, liberty, or property.
Is capital punishment justified
(By contrast, Hobbes’s right of nature is a liberty: it gives people permission to do things in defense of their lives but it imposes no obligations on others. So you could have the right, meaning liberty, to defend your life even though others are permitted to kill you.)
This raises a question about punishment.
Punishment involves depriving people of their lives, limbs (ew), liberty, or property. So how does anyone gain the permission to punish?
Locke has two answers:
The right to preserve mankind gives anyone permission to punish criminals for the sake of what Locke calls “restraint,” that is, deterring or preventing future crimes (§7–8).
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