[ExI] free-will, determinism, crime and punishment.

[Lee Corbin]

Jeff writes

> On 8/17/07, John K Clark <jonkc at att.net> wrote:
> 
>> gts wrote
>> 
>> > the goal of a correctional facility should
>> > be simply to correct the nature of the criminal
>>
>> But we have no idea how to do that ...
> 
> John, don't you think that if some sociopathic (but not organically
> defective) "offender" was placed under your tutelage, and you were
> given wide lattitude regarding what measures you could employ, that
> you couldn't straighten him/her out?  Perhaps not completely, but
> substantially?

I agree with John that we really don't know how to do that. I
wonder if you aren't unconsciously assuming that Good is
superior to Evil.

Suppose that you had been raised in a Mafia household and that
all your friends and relatives from your earliest years believed that
exterminating anyone who got in the family's way was just and
correct. But somehow, you turned out wrong. Somehow you,
despite all their best wishes for you and all the counseling and
help they provided, persisted in not wanting to seek revenge
and hurt, maim, torture, and kill. 

Do you think that it necessarily follows that somewhere in the
world there has to be a Don wise enough to "correct", that
is, "rehabilitate" you, and turn you into a bloodthirsty killer?

Lee

>  Without surgical intervention.  You know, like place
> the individual in a new environment, where old (bad) habits don't
> work, and new habits have to be learned to gradually supplant the old?
> 
> Or, if not under your tutelage (for whatever reason, say, you're
> disinclined or feel your skill set would be more rationally allocated
> to other tasks) then under someone else's.