Book contents
- Moral Responsibility and the Psychopath
- Moral Responsibility and the Psychopath
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Moral Responsibility
- Chapter 2 Psychopathy
- Chapter 3 Psychopathy and Moral Responsibility
- Chapter 4 Emotions and Value
- Chapter 5 Empathy and Moral Development
- Chapter 6 Psychopathy in the Criminal Law
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
Conclusions
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 27 August 2021
- Moral Responsibility and the Psychopath
- Moral Responsibility and the Psychopath
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Moral Responsibility
- Chapter 2 Psychopathy
- Chapter 3 Psychopathy and Moral Responsibility
- Chapter 4 Emotions and Value
- Chapter 5 Empathy and Moral Development
- Chapter 6 Psychopathy in the Criminal Law
- Conclusions
- References
- Index
Summary
In the concluding chapter, I summarise again the central argument of the book and the evidence I have offered at various stages in support of it. I take care to set out the limitations of this argument as well as its conclusions: the limited set of reasons, to which psychopaths are not responsible for responding, and the limited class of people to whom my conclusions apply, namely those who have a severe lack of empathy stemming from birth or childhood. Finally, I point to some issues which would require additional argument: whether society would be justified in pre-emptively incarcerating psychopaths, and whether people who exhibit psychopathic traits to a lesser degree might as a result have diminished responsibility.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Moral Responsibility and the PsychopathThe Value of Others, pp. 187 - 190Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021