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One of the broadest and most balanced accounts of the capital punishment debate, The Leviathan's Choice explores the death penalty from four distinct perspectives--philosophical, theological, social science, and legal--and includes scholarly essays on both sides of the debate. An ideal reader for students and policy makers, this book is essential for everyone following the arguments surrounding the death penalty.
With over 10,000 entries, this bibliography is the most comprehensive guide to published writing in the tradition of Leo Strauss, who lived from 1899 to 1973 and was one of the most influential political philosophers of the twentieth century. John A. Murley provides Strauss's own complete bibliography and identifies the work of hundreds of Strauss's students, and their students' students. Leo Strauss and His Legacy charts the path of influence of a beloved teacher and mentor, a deep and lasting heritage that permeates the classrooms of the twenty-first century. Each new generation of students of political philosophy will find this bibliography an indispensable resource.
This volume provides an abundance of information on the history of capital punishment, and ongoing opposition to it. Author Bruce E.R. Thompson includes narratives on well-known figures on both sides of the issue. Various methods of execution are explained and their use placed in historical context. Legal terminology important to the debate is defined and explained.
This book focuses on the relationship between public morality and personal action in the American political community. It emphasizes the responsibilities of citizens and government to find and confirm truth, looking to specific sources: religious scripture and empirical events. Recognizing that we have a natural preference for distraction and distance from both sources of truth, Slack uses qualitative, open-ended interviews and direct observation to uncover the intimate consequences of life-taking in open societies. Abortion and murder/capital punishment are instances in which there is a sequence of events that result in life-taking. The act of murder denies the sanctity of life of someone e...
"The book Abortion, Execution, and the Consequences of Taking Life focuses on the relationship between public morality and personal action in the American political community. Abortion and murder/capital punishment are instances in which there is a sequence of events that results in life-taking. The act of murder denies the sanctity of life of someone else. Abortion and capital punishment also deny the sanctity of the lives of others." "The volume presumes a theocentric foundation envisioned by the American Founders. It explores the model's first source of truth, biblical scripture, as it applies to the public actions of murder, abortion, and capital punishment. Then it investigates the intimate reality of these acts. These realities are examined in a variety of settings, resulting in a mosaic pattern of public action about capital punishment and abortion." --Book Jacket.
An extensive survey of the pros and cons, evolution, and current issues surrounding one of the hottest topics in today's social debates. Death Penalty on Trial: A Handbook with Cases, Laws, and Documents sifts through the rhetoric, politics, and emotion that characterize one of the most highly discussed, yet least understood issues facing the United States today. Placing the death penalty in a historical perspective with an emphasis on the last 50 years, this case-driven volume explains the legal theory that has perpetuated it and the judicial reasoning, both pro and con, behind such landmark Supreme Court cases as Furman v. Georgia and The United States of America v. Alan Quinones. From the first Massachusetts Bay Colony execution and the inventions of the electric chair and gas chamber to DNA testing of inmates, readers will learn how and why capital punishment continues to be so controversial.
Until the early twentieth century, printed invitations to executions issued by lawmen were a vital part of the ritual of death concluding a criminal proceeding in the United States. In this study, Gordon Morris Bakken invites readers to an understanding of the death penalty in America with a collection of essays that trace the history and politics of this highly charged moral, legal, and cultural issue. Bakken has solicited essays from historians, political scientists, and lawyers to ensure a broad treatment of the evolution of American cultural attitudes about crime and capital punishment. Part one of this extensive analysis focuses on politics, legal history, multicultural issues, and the ...
One in the series New Dialogues in Philosophy, edited by the author himself, Dale Jacquette presents a fictional dialogue over a three-day period on the ethical complexities of capital punishment. Jacquette moves his readers from outlining basic issues in matters of life and death, to questions of justice and compassion, with a concluding dialogue on the conditional and unconditional right to life. Jacquette's characters talk plainly and thoughtfully about the death penalty, and readers are left to determine for themselves how best to think about the morality of putting people to death.
Few subjects are as intensely debated in the United States as the death penalty. Some form of capital punishment has existed in America for hundreds of years, yet the justification for carrying out the ultimate sentence is a continuing source of controversy. No Winners Here Tonight explores the history of the death penalty and the question of its fairness through the experience of a single state, Ohio, which, despite its moderate midwestern values, has long had one of the country’s most active death chambers. In 1958, just four states accounted for half of the forty-eight executions carried out nationwide, each with six: California, Georgia, Ohio, and Texas. By the first decade of the new ...
Protecting the natural environment and promoting sustainability have become important objectives, but achieving such goals presents myriad challenges for even the most committed environmentalist. American Environmentalism: Philosophy, History, and Public Policy examines whether competing interests can be reconciled while developing consistent, coherent, effective public policy to regulate uses and protection of the natural environment without destroying the national economy. It then reviews a range of possible solutions. The book delves into key normative concepts that undergird American perspectives on nature by providing an overview of philosophical concepts found in the western intellectu...