Drafts by Gerald J . Postema
Utility, Publicity, and Law: Essays on Bentham's Moral and Legal Philosophy, 2023
In 2019, I published Utility, Publicity, and Law: Essays on Bentham's Moral and Legal Philosophy ... more In 2019, I published Utility, Publicity, and Law: Essays on Bentham's Moral and Legal Philosophy (Oxford University Press). Michihiro Kaino's Japanese translation will be published by Keio University Press (Tokyo, 2023). This Preface explains why it is important to explore again Bentham's seminal work in metaphysics, ethics, and legal theory. We who seek a deeper understanding of law—its nature and value, its deficiencies and limits, its promise and prospects—do well to take up the challenge of Bentham’s writings. The main reason for this is that serious, reflective thinking about law is inescapably oriented toward its history.
Jurisprudence, 2023
Sylvie Delacroix (Habitual Ethics) invites us to a new and deeper understanding of the role of su... more Sylvie Delacroix (Habitual Ethics) invites us to a new and deeper understanding of the role of such habituation in our daily lives. Her fine study offers keen insight into the operation of habit in our lives among others, its enabling and enhancing contributions to moral deliberation and judgment, and its potential for their distraction and distortion. My discussion here seeks not to fundamentally challenge her analysis, but to build upon it. I begin with a brief outline of her account, elaborating it a bit here and there. Then I put her account to work to deepen our understanding of the place of mercy in the criminal process, an institutional context of moral judgment in which habitual elements seem to play an important, if unacknowledged, role.
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Drafts by Gerald J . Postema