Death and Punishment

Content

This is a course on selected topics related to ideas and arguments on death and punishment in ethics and political theory in the modern age. These were crucial issues in political and moral debates, in the context of the debates such as those on the extent of legitimate political power.

TEXTS: Most of the works of the authors we discuss are available in the Department’s library. Many facsimile texts could be found at Gallica virtual library: www.bnf.fr

SCHEDULE & REQUIREMENTS: The intensive course will span over 8 days, three hours daily. It is open to all students in Philosophy.. The texts are generally available in English, though knowledge of French and/or Latin would be an advantage.

Day 1 – Tuesday 14 April 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 303

The Philosophical Literature of Consolation

• Consolation literature is today considered a minor genre. It used to be, though, a major field of practical philosophy, concerned with the examining and correcting of the reaction of the individual facing death or misfortune. We will first review Classical texts (Seneca, Boethius) and then move to consider Rousseau’s Reveries as a modern example of consolation.

Bibliography:

• Seneca, On Consolation, in Seneca, Dialogues and Essays (Oxford University Press, 2007)
• Boethius, Consolations of Philosophy, Book II (Hacket Publishing House, Indiannapolis 2001)
• Rousseau, Reveries of a Solitary Walker, I and II (Penguin Classics, 1980)

Optional readings:

• Margaret R. Graver, Stoicism and Emotion (The University of Chicago Press, 2007)
• On the Genre of the Philippians: Ancient Consolation, in Paul A. Holloway, Consolation in Philippians. Philosophical Sources and Rhetorical Strategy (Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 55-87
• Simo Knuuttila, Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2006)
• Susan Snyder, The Left Hand of God: Despair in Medieval and Renaissance Tradition, in Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 12. (1965), pp. 18-59.

Day 2 – Wednesday 15 April 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 303

The Theory of Inquiétude and the Worm of Conscience

• Theories of mind and behaviour of the early modern age identified an affect of unique importance. French moralists named it inquiétude, while English authors preferred to call it uneasiness. In most variants, it was analysed as a background feeling or internal movement, spurred by the presence of death or nothingness. We then follow the theory of inquiétude and ennui from Pascal and Locke to the French Enlightenment. Finally, we document how, in the wake of their Classical and Medieval predecessors, the French moralists of the 17th and 18th centuries, from La Rochefoucauld to Chamfort, expose the inner dimension of suffering.

Bibliography:

• John Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding, Book II, chapter XXI On Power, § 29-47
• La Rochefoucauld, Maxims, in Collected Maxims and Other Reflections (Oxford University Press, 2007)

Optional readings:

• Forgivness, Punishment and Justice, in Anthony Bash, Forgiveness and Christian Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 141-159
• Jean Deprun, La philosophie de l'inquiétude en France au XVIIIe siècle Unusual Cases: Apologizing to Animals, Infants, Machines, the Deceased, and Yourself, in Nick Smith, I Was Wrong. The Meaning of Apologies (Cambridge University Press, 2008)

Day 3 – Thursday 16 April 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 303

The Fate of the Body: Torture, Burial and Dissection

• The (politicised) travel literature in the New World often refers to a shocking ritual of torture. We will uncover the Classical origins of these descriptions and we will advance an explanation of the persistence of this topic until the late 18th century, in authors like Adam Smith. Then we clarify why the treatment of the cadaver was a major issue in both penal theory and Natural Law theories of the modern age. We examine the response of early modern jurists to an age-old dilemma and then reveal the evolution towards a more utilitarian approach to the question of status of the dead.

Bibliography:

• Hugo Grotius, The Rights of War and Peace (2005 ed.) vol. 2 (Book II), Chapter XIX: Of the Right of Burial
• Introduction, by James E. Crimmins, in Jeremy Bentham’s Auto-Icon and Related Writings, Bristol, 2002 (online at http://www.utilitarian.net/bentham/index.htm)

Optional readings:

• Robert Favre, La mort dans la literature et la pensée françaises au Siècle des Lumières
• Ruth Richardson, Death, Dissection and the Destitute (The University of Chicago Press, 2001)

Day 4 – Friday 17 April 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 244

The Calculus of Pain

• In the 18th century, a new justification of punishment emerges. Radically opposed to classical arguments, utilitarianism advances a different understanding of the technology and the purpose of punishment. We will focus on Beccaria and on the defence of capital punishment in John Stuart Mill.

Bibliography:

• Cesare Beccaria, On Crimes and Punishments (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp.9-26 and 31-32
• John Stuart Mill, Speech in Favour of Capital Punishment (1868; online at Wikisource)

Optional readings:

• Richard Evans, Rituals of Retribution. Capital Punishment in Germany 1600-1987 (Oxford University Press, 1996)
• Tony Draper, An Introduction to Jeremy Bentham’s Theory of Punishment, Journal of Bentham Studies, 2002 (online at http://www.utilitarian.net/bentham/index.htm)
• Ted Honderich, Punishment. The Supposed Justifications Revisited (Pluto Press, London and Ann Arbor, 2006), pp. 4-17

Day 5 – Tuesday 21 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 303

War on Beggars

• From the 17th century, the authorities and the moralists discover an imminent danger that threatens the foundations of the state. Vagabonds, paupers, beggars – these are all the target of a new repressive set of measures. We will analyse, in addition to Locke’s thoughts on the “Poor Laws”, a little known group of texts from 18th century France, the “treatises against beggary”.

Bibliography:

• An Essay on the Poor Law, in John Locke, Political Essays (Cambridge University Press, 1997)
• La Trosne, Mémoire sur les vagabonds et les mendians (1764; available at www.bnf.fr)
• Malvaux, Detruire la mendicité (1780; available at www.bnf.fr)

Optional readings:

• Philosophy and Bureaucracy, in Thomas McStay Adams, Bureaucrats and Beggars. French Social Policy in the Age of Enlightenment (Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 134-159
• Susan E. Dinan, Motivations for Charity in Early Modern France, in The Reformation of Charity. The Secular and the Religious in Early Modern Poor Relief, Edited by Thomas Max Safley (Brill Academic Publishers, 2003) pp. 176-193
• J. B. Schneewind, Philosophical Ideas of Charity: Some Historical Reflections, in Western Ideas of Philanthropy, edited by J. B. Schneewind (Indiana University Press, 1996), pp. 54-76

Day 6 - Wednesday 22 April 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 303

Sovereignty and the Soul

• The legal doctrine of sovereignty, in Bodin, is one that considers capital punishment as essential. Questions were raised, however, as to the extent of this power of the sovereign. Does it complement or reflect God’s power? The introduction of mortalist arguments by Hobbes will mark, we will argue, a breaking point in the theory of punishment.

Bibliography:

• Jean Bodin, The Six Books of the Commonwealth (1576), Book V, Chapter IV, Concerning Rewards and Punishments (available online from www.constitution.org) Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, chapter 38, Of the Signification in Scripture of Eternal Life, Hell, Salvation, the World to Come, and Redemption (Cambridge University Press, 1996) pp. 306-320

Optional readings:

• Thomas S. Schrock, The Rights to Punish and Resist Punishment in Hobbes's Leviathan, in The Western Political Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 4. (Dec., 1991), pp. 853-890
• Paul C. Davies , The Debate on Eternal Punishment in Late Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century English Literature, in Eighteenth-Century Studies, Vol. 4, No. 3. (Spring, 1971), pp. 257-276
• Resurrected Self, in Raymond Martin and John Barresi, The Rise and Fall of Soul and Self. An Intellectual History of Personal Identity (Columbia University Press, 2006), pp. 55-75
• “The Church in Danger”: Latitudinarians, Socinians, and Hobbists, in Ann Thomson, Bodies of Thought. Science, Religion, and the Soul in the Early Enlightenment (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Day 7 - Thursday 23 April 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 303

Necessary Evil

• Classical authors such as Xenophon postulated a correspondence between the punishment administered by the authorities and the character of the political regime. We will argue that this connection was preserved in the texts of the early modern age and will serve as a background of the discussion on the opportunity and significance of modes of punishment.

Bibliography:

• Xenophon, Hiero, in Leo Strauss, On Tyranny (Chicago University Press, 2000) Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, Book 29, On the Manner of Forming Laws (Cambridge University Press, 1989)

Optional readings:

• David Boonin, The Problem of Punishment (Cambridge University Press, 2008), pp. 1-37
• Generalized Punishment, in Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish. The Birth of the Prison (Vintage, 1995), pp. 73-103
• Teaching a Lesson: Pain and Poetic Justice, in William Ian Miller, Eye for an Eye (Cambridge University Press, 2006), pp. 58-70

Day 8 - Friday 24 April 2009, 9-12 S20A sr 244

Death by Numbers

• Speculations on the evolution of population and its importance for the body politic form an essential part of modern political thought. We will examine the theories postulating a catastrophic development spelling the end of the state, from the 17th century fears of unchecked growth to the sophisticated arguments of Malthus.

Bibliography:

• Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal (1729; available online)
• Thomas Robert Malthus, An Essay on the Principle of Population (1st edition, 1798; available at Online Library of Liberty), chapter II, The Different Ratios in Which Population and Food Increase, and Chapter XVIII, The Constant Pressure of Distress on Man

Optional readings:

• David B. Young , Libertarian Demography: Montesquieu's Essay on Depopulation in the Lettres Persanes, in Journal of the History of Ideas, Vol. 36, No. 4. (Oct. - Dec., 1975), pp. 669-682
• Sylvana Tomaselli, Moral Philosophy and Population Questions in Eighteenth Century Europe, in Population and Development Review, Vol. 14, Supplement: Population and Resources in Western Intellectual Traditions. (1988), pp. 7-29

Course evaluation anddevelopment

Please send your course essays to: avramescu@me.com