Beccaria on Discounting Intentions in Adjudicating Punishments for Crimes

Authors

  • Dale Jacquette Universität Bern Institut für Philosophie Abteilung Logik und theoretische Philosophie

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4454/philinq.v2i2.40

Keywords:

Beccaria, Cesare, criminal liability, intentions, proto-utilitarianism,

Abstract

This essay considers Cesare Beccaria's arguments in Chapter 7 of Dei delitti e delle pene for discounting an agent's intentions in assigning punishments for crimes. Beccaria offers four different arguments in this compact section of the book, including the impenetrable subjectivity of another subject's intentionality and the risk of committing blasphemy by punishing intentions to act as sins and effectively usurping God's authority. These objections are answered and the role of intentions in determining criminal guilt and appropriate punishments is investigated in light of Beccaria's objections.

Author Biography

Dale Jacquette, Universität Bern Institut für Philosophie Abteilung Logik und theoretische Philosophie

ordentlicher Professor Dr., Institut für Philosophie, Abteilung Logik und theoretische Philosophie

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Published

2014-04-07

Issue

Vol. 2 No. 2 (2014)

Section

Focus

License

Copyrights are transferred for 18 months starting publication date from the author(s) to the Publisher. After this period, the content is released under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International).