Harmless Wrongdoing

by Joel Feinberg

Overview

This first volume in the four-volume series The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law focuses on the "harm principle," the commonsense view that prevention of harm to persons other than the perpetrator is a legitimate purpose of criminal legislation. Feinberg presents a detailed analysis of the concept and definition of harm and applies it to a host of practical and theoretical issues, showing how the harm principle must be interpreted if it is to be a plausible guide to the lawmaker.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199878574
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/05/1984
Series:	Moral Limits of the Criminal Law , #4
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

University of Arizona, Tucson

Editorial Reviews

"Comprehensive, systematic, argued with a rigour and scrupulousness unmatched, let along surpassed, in any comparable study....A colossal achievement, definitive and magisterial, a book which makes a permanent contribution to legal and political philosophy."—Times Literary Supplement

"With Harmless Wrongdoing Joel Feinberg has completed a four-volume treatise...that argues brilliantly for a liberal doctrine close in spirit to the 'one very simple principle' defended by John Stuart Mill in On Liberty."—Ethics

"Full of detail and careful argument....a very subtle and nuanced book....The work is wide-ranging, and has valuer for those with interests in social philosophy and ethics as well as philosophers of law."—Mind

"A serious, sustained, and surprisingly readable attempt to answer the question: Are we ever justified in outlawing behavior than doesn't actually harm anyone else? Proponents of moralistic legislation will find a powerful and thoughtful adversary in Feinberg."—Utne Reader

"In its scope, attention to principle and detail, careful argument, and respect for psychological and social realities, this last volume, as well as its predecessors, provides a first-rate analysis of which conduct the state may properly declare criminal and why. Feinberg's achievement, moreover, is independent of whether or not one agrees with his analysis or adopts his conclusions."—Library Journal

From the Publisher