Maverick Philosopher

Three Arguments Against Capital Punishment Demolished

1. One could be called the 'epistemological' argument: it can't be known that one accused of a capital crime is guilty. The argument sometimes takes this enthymematic form: P2. Capital punishment is sometimes inflicted on the innocent....

Fetal Rights and the Death Penalty: Consistent or Inconsistent?

Is it consistent to support both fetal rights and the moral acceptability of capital punishment? That depends on what is meant by 'consistent.' Let us begin by asking whether the following propositions are logically consistent. P1. A li...

Capital Punishment and the Difference between Conservatives and Leftists

The difference springs to the eye by comparison of this morally sane piece by Peter Hitchens and this one by Hendrik Hertzberg. Hendrik makes no mention of the crime, the victim, and her horrible death. Instead, typical leftist that he ...

Can One Consistently be Pro-Life and Pro-Death Penalty?

This topic just won't go away. Recent example: [Texas Governor Rick] Perry’s identification as a strong supporter of “a culture of life” and what he called the “ultimate justice” of capital punishment, however, raises some potentiall...

Why We are 'Obsessed' with Guns and Executions

Keith Burgess-Jackson explains in response to a moronic missive he found in the NYT: To the Editor: Dear America: Not that I expect to persuade you, but just so you know, most of the rest of the world regards your obsession with gu...

Death Penalty, Abortion, and Certainty

Some opponents of the death penalty oppose it on the ground that one can never be certain whether the accused is guilty as charged. Some of these people are pro-choice. To them I say: Are you certain that the killing of the unborn is...

Willie Horton Revisited

I posted the following on my Facebook page this morning. Go there for my political linkage and 'rantage.' .......................................... I have a confession to make. I voted for Michael Dukakis in 1988! Do I have an excu...

Presumption and Suspension of Judgment

I continue my Pyrrhonian ponderings. What is exercising me at the moment is the question of how suspending judgment as to the truth or falsity of a proposition p is related to presuming that p. I will propose that there are two forms ...

Bestiality, Rape, and Consent

Bestiality in the sense relevant here is sexual intercourse of humans with lower animals. Is there anything morally wrong with it? Some say that there is because lower animals cannot be consensual partners in bestial relations. Here is ...