Another look at Aquinas's Objections to Capital Punishment

New Blackfriars 97 (1067):289-307 (2016)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

According to Thomas Aquinas, a sovereign government may legitimately execute sinners in pursuance of the common good. Aquinas outlines his defence of Capital Punishment in the Summa Theologica 2–2, q.64, a.2 and the Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 3, Chapter 146. Aquinas's stance on this issue is well known and his argument in favour of CP has been extensively discussed. This article will focus instead on the objections Aquinas raises to the institution of CP in the ST and SCG, along with his responses to these objections. After providing a brief sketch of Aquinas's account of legal punishment, Aquinas's argument for the legitimacy of CP will then be outlined. The objections which Aquinas raises to CP will then be individually examined, along with his reply to each. After examining the underpinnings of Aquinas's objections and responses, the outline of a critique will be offered which draws upon the thought of Augustine and Karl Barth

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Aquinas on crime.Charles P. Nemeth - 2008 - South Bend, Ind.: St. Augustine's Press.
Capital Punishment: Its Lost Appeal?Christopher P. Ferbrache - 2013 - Essays in the Philosophy of Humanism 21 (2):75-89.
Justice With Mercy.Bradley Wilson - 2012 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 26 (1):119-135.
Thomas on the Parts of "Justice".Hsiao-Huei Pan - 2004 - Philosophy and Culture 31 (3):109-134.
Aquinas and Capital Punishment: The Plausibility of the Traditional Argument.Christian Brugger - 2004 - Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics and Public Policy 18 (2):357-372.
The Justice and Goodness of Hell.John Lamont - 2011 - Faith and Philosophy 28 (2):152-173.
Retributivist arguments against capital punishment.Thom Brooks - 2004 - Journal of Social Philosophy 35 (2):188–197.
Capital Punishment as a Response to Evil.Peter Brian Barry - 2015 - Criminal Law and Philosophy 9 (2):245-264.
Aquinas on Self-Knowledge and the Individuation of Thought.Carl N. Still - 2014 - International Philosophical Quarterly 54 (3):253-264.
Can/Should We Purge Evil Through Capital Punishment?Carol S. Steiker - 2015 - Criminal Law and Philosophy 9 (2):367-378.
The Thought of Thomas Aquinas.Brian Davies - 1992 - New York: Clarendon Press.

Analytics

Added to PP
2015-12-14

Downloads
24 (#563,024)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references