Answer me this, how much money do you think is spent on keeping these people that you hate so much locked up? You are trying to justify killing someone because it saves you money, yet the true reason is that they are "big bad men" that you are scared of. Letting them live scares you because you have an irrational fear that they are going to get out of jail and that they may want to kill you. You can attempt to justify it all you want, hell from your point of view every criminal should just be hung! Imagine how much money that would spare your wonderful, democratic government, that kills people to save money!
I'm against the death penalty mainly because of the possibility of killing someone who later turns out to be innocent. Even in the cases of indisputable proof I'm against it as I think that the death penalty is an easy way out and because of the message that executions give to the citizenship.
I believe in the death penalty for people who are completely fucked, dangerous and can never leave prison or be reformed. I equate it to putting down a viscous dog. Not their fault but death is perhaps kinder and saves the government money which could be put towards the NHS ect.
It's a mix of both, but mostly money. I also don't want to risk some of these psycopaths getting out either. But you know, that's more of a phobia.
The comment "everyone has the capacity to change" is at best misguided. A psychopath cannot suddenly gain the ability to not be a psychopath. Similarly there are a lot of people who will never change, nor will they ever not be dangerous even if they're not committing crimes. "Killing them is letting them off easily" - Letting them off easily for what? Prison is a punishment for the virtue of what it is, but foremost it is segregation for the safety of society and hopefully rehabilitation so that they can rejoin society safely, of course prison isn't meant to be fun, people aren't meant to want to go there, it's meant to keep people in line, and for the most part it does, the majority of people will not commit any crimes for fear of being arrested, not just because they don't want to spend time in prison but also for the financial implications of doing so. The reality is however, is there are a lot of people in prison, in fact most of them are people who act on impulse, the thought of prison doesn't even cross there mind when they are committing a crime. But they do not do the things they do because they are evil, the do it because for whatever reason that is the way they are, and the way they are is not their fault. It will be caused by any number of things including if their upbringing and there nature as well, it is a stupid idea for punishing people for who they are, one of the reasons I am against the level of hate that paedophiles get, not that I don't think they need to be locked up, children are vulnerable and need to be looked after but I certainly don't think hurting them is called for, some psychiatric help is in order.
Prison is the right option, that is what you suggest is it not? Lets hypothesise a case. A man gets sentenced to death, for whatever reason (I don't know the American justice system), he has to wait 8 years. In those 8 years he asks for forgiveness from the families of the victims which they grant him. He also helped a great deal of people in that time and that outweighs his crimes. Should he still be executed for a crime that people have forgotten about? For an act that he has seeked atonement for?
This is the reason I hate the idea of murderers deserving punishment for their crimes: People don’t murder because they’re evil, they murder because of some combination of bad genes, bad parents, bad ideas, and bad luck. None of those are the fault of the murderer. They did not willingly murder because they can not will what they will. Freewill in an illusion. Causes caused by virtually infinite causes determined their fate. No one chooses to be a murderer, because no one can choose their choices. Murderers no matter how evil they may seem deserve to be treated with compassion, because they are just as much victims of circumstance as anyone else.
People can't choose what they choose. Free will is an absurd concept that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
"choice" is an empty word if you're a determinist (which you should be since it's the only logical conclusion). The thing is, even through determinism is the reality of our existence that still doesn't change any other value assessment, suffering still sucks and we still have to play our part -as scripted as it is- and promote good memes. It's unfortunate that people think the justice system is there to punish people and take revenge for the victims and their families when in principle it's there to provide deterrence.
That’s true. Even if people could choose to be evil that still wouldn’t mean they deserve to suffer. No conscious creature deserves to suffer.
I agree. However, that's not how society works. Society demands "retribution" for what it deems crimes. I still think people make conscious choices, unless they are mentally enable to realize not only the consequence, but the philosophical meaning for their actions.
Absolute free will is an absurd concept. Free will exists so far as the concept actually matters. I choose what to do because of my inclination to do so. My inclination can be broken down into many elements that are determined by nature, but it's how we perceive it that matters, not the objective reality. Besides, no one can predict the future, so determinism never means anything out of retrospect.
Forced labor anyone you do somethin bad you should be punished. Death is too easy. And jails in America are better living conditions then some people that are in jail
I think that the best penalty for any punishment is being publically humiliated. Really, what we need to do for petty crooks, put them in that thing that thing had in the middle ages (name escapes me, had the three holes, one for the head, two for the hands), and throw rotting fruit at them. Plus, allows grocers to sell spoilibg stock, stimulating the economy!
Then you could force them to build infastructure even better for the economy lol no petty crooks should be done what you described above but the ones who rape and murder should have forced labor
You're calling the choices that we can’t choose free will? Okay, but I don’t see how that matters, nor how that’s relevant.
From scientific point of view (despite the fact I htae bringing science into philosophical discusions) free will is impossible. Why? Because your subconcious know what it is about to do before you do. And since your subconscious is not directly in your control then you have a lack of control over your own actions.
How it's relevant? Well for starters you can validate for yourself the perception of free will. If we perceive to have free will, then we have it. The illusion of choice is the equivalent to choice if you don't know it's an illusion, or even if you do, if you can't see through it. And we can't, by any means, see through the illusion of choice. As I said, there is simply no way to predict the future. There are an infinite number of factors that determine one small decision, and measuring infinity (assuming we even could measure all of the factors in the universe throughout all of time) to achieve any meaningful result is a fool's game. Deterministic philosophies always look good in retrospect. But then, that's all they can do. To put it simply: if you want to be a determinist and hold that free will doesn't exist, go right on ahead. There are no real implications to determinism, and whether or not you believe in free will doesn't eliminate the perception of free will, the illusion of choice, or the assumption of responsibility. Because guess what? Everyone's living under the same roof here.
