RE: Moral justification for the execution of criminals of war?
August 13, 2022 at 12:23 pm
(This post was last modified: August 13, 2022 at 12:25 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
Lazy commitment challenge. A person might have a complicated relationship with their normative beliefs if gravely put on the spot. We're all compromised moral agents, and I think we can allow for a person to have some pretty shitty feelings that they know they shouldn't act on. The mere existence of cultures communities, and societies would make it so even if it were not so for any other reason. We've all been there, eh?
Sometimes we do act on them, and sometimes we don't. The social contract describes what a group of people will refuse to do even if they personally want to do it, just as it describes what they must do even when they don't. To the extent that a person may want revenge in the case of a dead child (ukranian soldier or anyone else, really) they're in a challenging situation. It's considered by many societies character or reputation building to overcome these sorts of challenges; an acknowledgment of difficulty of the content. Also, an acknowledgement of the problem itself insomuch as a state might pursue the death penalty. The emotional incentivization of injustice facilitated by some of our legal systems is what puts these people in these challenging situations. Not the specific offender. That asshole put them in the unenviable position of grief, processing a deep loss. But the state that processes the execution has put them in the position of being accessory to murder, as well, and at a time when we understand ourselves to be severely compromised by nature and circumstance.
Let's just agree that we're not making the best decisions in that state, and so, that we might do something terrible in that state is not indicative of it being good decision making. It doesn't certify those courses of action as the ones we ought to take. It does not make them the just courses of action.
Sometimes we do act on them, and sometimes we don't. The social contract describes what a group of people will refuse to do even if they personally want to do it, just as it describes what they must do even when they don't. To the extent that a person may want revenge in the case of a dead child (ukranian soldier or anyone else, really) they're in a challenging situation. It's considered by many societies character or reputation building to overcome these sorts of challenges; an acknowledgment of difficulty of the content. Also, an acknowledgement of the problem itself insomuch as a state might pursue the death penalty. The emotional incentivization of injustice facilitated by some of our legal systems is what puts these people in these challenging situations. Not the specific offender. That asshole put them in the unenviable position of grief, processing a deep loss. But the state that processes the execution has put them in the position of being accessory to murder, as well, and at a time when we understand ourselves to be severely compromised by nature and circumstance.
Let's just agree that we're not making the best decisions in that state, and so, that we might do something terrible in that state is not indicative of it being good decision making. It doesn't certify those courses of action as the ones we ought to take. It does not make them the just courses of action.
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