Punishment: The Supposed Justifications (Peregrine Books) - Softcover

Ted, Honderich

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140550968 ISBN 13: 9780140550962

Publisher: Penguin, 1976

Synopsis

-- A classic book transformed by a philosopher at his strongest -- Reviews of the first edition: 'Painstaking, comprehensive and unimpassioned.' Anthony Kenny, New Statesman 'Bold, tough, direct style . . . a pleasure to read.' Mary Warnock, Times Literary

About this title

Review

This book would be invaluable for anyone who wants to start thinking seriously about what justifies punishment, not only because it surveys a high proportion of the classical literature but because it connects theories in broad yet subtle ways. It adroitly anticipates the reader's objections. It combines impressive breath with meticulous dissection of ideas. Its conclusion is refreshingly iconoclastic. It contains wit and a healthy contempt for politicians. (Metapsychology)

This book is something of a curiosity, an application of the reputedly nitpicking techniques of British analytical philosophy to a question of real practical importance which can easily be recognised as such. Honderich does emphasis that we cannot look at punishments in the abstract without considering the substantive laws (of property in particular) which they are intended to protect. He says, obviously rightly, that the greatest enthusiasts for punishments are believers in immutable property rights and is properly scathing about Nozick, the American rights theorist about whom Bentham's expression 'nonsense on stilts' might have been coined. (Rory O'Kelly, Chartist)

Sir Isaiah Berlin's...essays...amount to more than intellectual history...The new book on punishment by Ted Honderich seems to me a very good example of philosophy in the midst of recovery (Norman Care, The New Republic)

About the Author

Professor Honderich is Grote Professor Emeritus at University College London and author of numerous books on philosophy including After the Terror (Edinburgh University Press, 2002), How Free Are You? (Oxford University Press, 2001), and editor of The Philosophers: Introducing Great Western Thinkers (Oxford University Press, 2001). He is also the editor of the Oxford Companion to Philosophy.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 1976
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0140550968
• ISBN 13: 9780140550962
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208