[ExI] Implications of Sociopath Testing

[Stathis Papaioannou]

2008/8/24 Stefano Vaj <stefano.vaj at gmail.com>:
> On Sun, Aug 24, 2008 at 7:42 AM, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
>> But we can imagine a
>> quasi-sociopath who was rational and calculating, preferring to use
>> legal methods to get his way, and only breaking the law when certain
>> he could get away with it.
>
> Why, if you deal with the economic analysis of law, say Posner, this
> is what humanity is supposed to be composed of, at least for the sake
> of legislative, contractual and judiciary strategies... :-)

Which is all the law should care about. Lee's original question was
whether someone who could be demonstrated to be sociopathic despite an
ability to hide it should be treated differently by the law than his
non-sociopathic counterpart. But if he were really good at hiding his
sociopathy he would not be any more likely to commit a crime than
anyone else. This is like a variation on the philosophical zombie
argument: what if someone *honestly believed* that everyone else was a
zombie (or equivalently, that no-one else's feelings mattered even if
they did have feelings) but was committed to behave as if they weren't
because it would make life easier for him?



-- 
Stathis Papaioannou