PEA Soup

CFP: Policing and Prisons (November 1st Deadline)

Policing and Prisons: Ethical and Political Questions about Law Enforcement and Incarceration 

The Bowling Green Workshop in Applied Ethics and Public Policy will take place in Bowling Green, Ohio, March 11^th-12^th, 2015. Our keynote speaker is Douglas Husak (Rutgers). Those interested in presenting a paper are invited to submit a 2-3 page abstract (double-spaced) by November 1^st, 2015. 

A worry regarding the necessity of defensive force

I've got, well, a worry regarding the "necessity" requirement on the legitimacy of self- or other-defensive force. I don't really work on this stuff, so it's entirely possible that there's an easy, pat answer to this worry. Anyway, I'd be interested to hear what you all think.

Victor Tadros' The Ends of Harm Chapter 12, with Critical Precis by Cecile Fabre

In his latest book, The Ends of Harm (OUP 2011), our own Victor Tadros advances a fascinating theory of punishment, which is articulated in Chapter 12, made available by OUP here.  Discussion of the chapter kicks off today with a critical precis by another of our own, Cecile Fabre, a professor at Oxford University.  Professor Fabre's precis begins below the fold.

The Ends of Harm Discussion

[MOVING TO THE FRONT]

I am very pleased to announce that we will be hosting a discussion of Chapter 12 of Victor Tadros's book The Ends of Harm (OUP, 2011) on PEA Soup, starting on Wed., November 28.  Oxford University Press has generously made this chapter available open access here.  To jumpstart discussion, Oxford Professor Cecile Fabre will provide a critical precis of the chapter (a chapter which is more or less freestanding and so is accessible to those who haven't read the rest of the book).  In it, Victor advances the "duty view" of punishment's justification, on which the permission to punish offenders is grounded in the duties that they incur in virtue of their wrongdoing.  This is a controversial yet compelling understanding of punishment, and I hope many of you will join us in the discussion of it.