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10The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law: Harm to selfOxford University Press. 1984.These four volumes address the question of the kinds of conduct may the state make criminal without infringing on the moral autonomy of individual citizens.
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8The feminist case against pornographyIn Steven M. Cahn (ed.), Exploring ethics: an introductory anthology, Oxford University Press. 2009.
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6Harm to Self: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, Vol. 3Law and Philosophy 7 (1): 107-122. 1988.
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24Responsibility for the FuturePhilosophy Research Archives 14 93-113. 1988.Prospective ascription of responsibility is hypothetical, commonly noting or setting conditions for critical judgment or liability if some event occurs or fails to occur, thus determining vulnerability to retrospective judgments. Prospective liabilities can be classified by source, by type or degree (if any) of accompanying control, and by structure or stages.But not all prospective responsibility can be understood in terms of liability. Actual or de facto control over X and/or responsibility fo…Read more
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250Doing & Deserving; Essays in the Theory of ResponsibilityPrinceton University Press. 1970.Supererogation and rules -- Problematic responsibility in law and morals -- On being "morally speaking a murderer" -- Justice and personal desert -- The expressive function of punishment -- Action and responsibility -- Causing voluntary actions -- Sua culpa -- Collective responsibility -- Crime, clutchability, and individuated treatment -- What is so special about mental illness?
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471Wrongful Life and the Counterfactual Element in HarmingSocial Philosophy and Policy 4 (1): 145. 1986.I shall be concerned in this paper with some philosophical puzzles raised by so-called “wrongful life” suits. These legal actions are obviously of great interest to lawyers and physicians, but philosophers might have a kind of professional interest in them too, since in a remarkably large number of them, judges have complained that the issues are too abstruse for the courts and belong more properly to philosophers and theologians. The issues that elicit this judicial frustration are those that r…Read more
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119The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law Volume 1: Harm to OthersOxford University Press USA. 1984.This first volume in the four-volume series The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law focuses on the "harm principle," the commonsense view that prevention of harm to persons other than the perpetrator is a legitimate purpose of criminal legislation. Feinberg presents a detailed analysis of the concept and definition of harm and applies it to a host of practical and theoretical issues, showing how the harm principle must be interpreted if it is to be a plausible guide to the lawmaker.
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21Harm to Others: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, Vol. ILaw and Philosophy 4 (3): 423-432. 1985.
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372Reason and responsibility (edited book)Dickenson Pub. Co.. 1971.The book's clear organization structures selections so that readings complement each other guiding you through contrasting positions on key concepts in ...
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85Obscene words and the lawLaw and Philosophy 2 (2). 1983.This paper asks whether the criminal law can have any legitimate concern with obscene language. At most, such a concern could be justified by the need to protect auditors from offense, since it is not plausible to think of exposure to dirty words as harmful or inherently immoral. A distinction is drawn between bare utterance and instant offense, on the one hand, and offensive nuisance and harassment, on the other. Only when obscene language is used to harass can it properly be made criminal. Fin…Read more
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60The Paradox of BlackmailRatio Juris 1 (1): 83-95. 1988.The author questions himself about what is known as “the paradox of blackmail,” that is, the fact that blackmail is the result of the combination of two ways of behaving which are often both lawful if taken individually, but unlawful once they are connected. The author also examines whether the harm principle typical of liberal orders provides the justification (the rationale) for the assumption of blackmail as a crime, or whether it is instead necessary to turn to another justificatory basis: t…Read more
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20This is the text of The Lindley Lecture for 1979, given by Joel Feinberg, an American philosopher.
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32Harmless WrongdoingOxford University Press. 1990.The final volume of Feinberg's four-volume work, The Moral Limits of Criminal Law examines the philosophical basis for the criminalization of so-called "victimless crimes" such as ticket scalping, blackmail, consented-to exploitation of others, commercial fortune telling, and consensual sexual relations.
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68Responsibility for the FuturePhilosophy Research Archives 14 93-113. 1988.Prospective ascription of responsibility is hypothetical, commonly noting or setting conditions for critical judgment or liability if some event occurs or fails to occur, thus determining vulnerability to retrospective judgments. Prospective liabilities can be classified by source, by type or degree (if any) of accompanying control, and by structure or stages.But not all prospective responsibility can be understood in terms of liability. Actual or de facto control over X and/or responsibility fo…Read more
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46Doing philosophy: a guide to the writing of philosophy papersWadsworth/Cengage Learning. 2014.Clear and concise, this brief guide will help you write a successful paper-even if you have no previous formal background in writing philosophy papers. Contents include topic selection, outlines, drafts, proper and improper quotation, argument development and evaluation, principles of good writing, style, criteria for grading student papers, and a review of common grammatical and dictional errors. In addition, the book devotes several chapters to basic concepts in logic, which have proven invalu…Read more
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103Overlooking the Merits of the Individual Case: An Unpromising Approach to the Right to DieRatio Juris 4 (2): 131-151. 1991..One of the strongest arguments against the legalization of voluntary euthanasia is that even though a given suffering or comatose patient may have a moral right to die, legal recognition of the right would lead inevitably to mistakes and abuses in other cases. The flaw in this argument is the assumption that it is always and necessarily a greater evil to let someone die by mistake than to keep a person alive by mistake. In fact, we cannot plausibly say that one of these two kinds of mistake is …Read more
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12The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law: Volume 2: Offense to OthersOxford University Press USA. 1988.The second volume in Joel Feinberg's series The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law, Offense to Others focuses on the "offense principle," which maintains that preventing shock, disgust, or revulsion is always a morally relevant reason for legal prohibitions. Feinberg clarifies the concept of an "offended mental state" and further contrasts the concept of offense with harm. He also considers the law of nuisance as a model for statutes creating "morals offenses," showing its inadequacy as a model fo…Read more
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182The child's right to an open futureIn Randall Curren (ed.), Philosophy of Education: An Anthology, Wiley-blackwell. 2006.