The old and new foundations of moral responsability

The author, a country magistrate, proposes new foundations of moral responsability. Rejecting free will as the foundation of moral responsability, calling it "positivist radicalism" he argues for an analysis of responsability based on personal and social identities, wich he calls "spiritualistic radicalism".L'auteur, juge d'instruction à Sarlat, propose de nouveaux fondements à la responsabilité morale. Rejetant le libre arbitre comme fondement à la responsabilité morale sous l'appellation de « radicalisme positiviste » il plaide pour une analyse de la responsabilité qui reposerait sur l'identité personnelle et sur l'identité sociale, ce qu'il appelle le « radicalisme spiritualiste »

The crimes of crowds

Gabriel Tarde reflects on the differences of responsability between the crowd and individuals. The crowd is inferior to the individual: it is a source of harm and danger. Collective responsability and individual responsability tend to exclude each other.Tarde réfléchit sur les différences de responsabilité entre la foule et les individus. Pour lui, la foule est inférieure à l'individu : elle est néfaste et dangereuse. Et la responsabilité collective est en raison inverse de la responsabilité individuelle

Ceremonies and Time in Shakespeare

This essay considers some moments in Shakespeare's texts which exemplify the Janus-faced quality of ceremonies: their enactment in the present looking backwards to past traditions and forwards to inaugurate new social relations. The argument draws on Victor Turner's theorization of ritual as an event that gives shape to “liminality,” that which “eludes or slips through the network of classification that normally locate states and positions in cultural space,” and argues that this applies to time as well. It also considers the construction of time in terms of kairos, a moment of time infused with meaning. The essay analyses ceremony in three Shakespearean genres. First, it examines Bertram's and Helena's ring exchange in All's Well That Ends Well as a “distended” ritual that collapses time. It then turns to Richard III, unpacking its complex sequence of ceremonies of betrothal, mourning, and sovereignty that are “continuously disrupted”. The final section describes the ceremonial time of romance in The Winter's Tale, unfolding the power invested in the kairotic time evoked by the oracle of Delphi, the sheep-shearing ceremony, and Paulina's “resurrection” of Hermione

Felony Murder and Capital Punishment: an Examination of the Deterrence Question

A proper test of the deterrent effect of the death penalty must consider capital homicides. However, the criterion variable in most investigations has been total homicides—most of which bear no legal or theoretical relationship to capital punishment. To address this fundamental data problem, this investigation used Federal Bureau of Investigation data for 1976–1987 to examine the relationship between capital punishment and felony murder, the most common type of capital homicide. We conducted time series analyses of monthly felony murder rates, the frequency of executions, and the amount and type of television coverage of executions over the period. The analyses revealed occasional departures (for vehicle theft and narcotics killings) from the null hypotheses. However, on balance, and in line with the vast majority of capital punishment studies, this investigation found no consistent evidence that executions and the television coverage they receive are associated significantly with rates for total, index, or different types of felony murder