NDLI: The Mad, the Bad, and the Psychopath

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The Mad, the Bad, and the Psychopath

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Maibom, Heidi L.
Copyright Year	2008
Abstract	It is common for philosophers to argue that psychopaths are not morally responsible because they lack some of the essential capacities for morality. In legal terms, they are criminally insane. Typically, however, the insanity defense is not available to psychopaths. The primary reason is that they appear to have the knowledge and understanding required under the M’Naghten Rules. However, it has been argued that what is required for moral and legal responsibility is ‘deep’ moral understanding, something that psychopaths do not have either due to their lacking empathy or practical reason. In the first part of the paper, I argue that psychopaths do not lack the abilities required for deep moral understanding, although they have deficits in those areas. According the M’Naghten Rules, therefore, psychopaths are not insane. Under a less strict formulation of the insanity plea, like the Model Penal Code, however, there is a good case to be made for their lacking substantial capacity. I argue that because psychopathy is an essentially moral disorder, and because of the nature of psychopathic violence, psychopaths should not be excused under the insanity plea. It would be tantamount to excusing someone for committing a crime because they are bad. Arguably, this contravenes the entire system of law.
Starting Page	167
Ending Page	184
Page Count	18
File Format	PDF
ISSN	18745490
Journal	Neuroethics
Volume Number	1
Issue Number	3
e-ISSN	18745504
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2008-05-15
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Criminal responsibility Legal responsibility Insanity Psychopathy Moral understanding Empathy Neuroradiology Neuropsychology Neurosurgery Neurobiology Neurology Ethics
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Philosophy Neurology Health Policy Psychiatry and Mental Health

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
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4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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