Tag Archives: justice

The Blackmail Paradox

While most agree that blackmail — the act of threatening to disclose true, but damaging, (potentially secret) information about a party unless payment is made (to earn silence) — is a criminal act, it poses two interesting paradoxes in the theory of criminal justice. The paradoxes are as follows: The first paradox is that “two

Philosophical Forays into Justice with Michael Sandel

Prof. Michael Sandel from Harvard University offered a 12-lecture course on “Justice: A Journey in Moral Reasoning” last year. Prof. Sandel makes a wonderful argument for studying philosophy as a means for understanding the answers that we already know, and he goes on to warn the audience that understanding political and social philosophy is, ironically, going to make you worse citizens, not better! You couldn’t ask for a more provocative set up to the lectures!

Here is the first video of the 12 [link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY]

Trial by Jury – A Flawed Model

Trial by jury is a popular concept in the justice system. I haven’t yet understood how it is better than having a trained professional weigh evidence and award the judgment. I see it as a system that is prone to fault, and worse, fault undetectably! When stripped down to essentials, the Jury is a collection