74 research outputs found
A revision on the doctrine of disability of mind
Does a person have the capacity to initiate his or her thinking
process, of "getting into" some state of mind on his or her own
accord? This is indeed the ancient philosophical question of
whether at a most fundarnentallevel one is a free agent. If one is a
free agent, it would appear that being free just within this sphere of
one's self would make the most sense.
AH the best arguments for free will suggest that freedom is a
matter of one's control over one's consciousness. Philosophers as diverse as Aristotle, Kant, Sartre, and Hart seem to view the matter
along such lines. The arguments about why determinism is selfrefuting
do the same. And finally the occasional scientific accounts
ofthe nature offree will also lead to this conclusion14.
Perhaps the aboye adjustment will help further to preserve in
law the notions of criminal responsibility as well as sensible
excusing conditions based on disabilities of mind 15
A Hobbesian Defense of Anarchy - J. C. Lester: Escape from Leviathan, Liberty, Welfare and Anarchy Reconciled. (New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. Pp. 246. $59.95.)
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