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About this quote

What does it mean?
The author challenges the assertion that capital punishment is murder, asking for the social principles behind it.
In plain terms
He questions the reasoning behind calling execution murder.
What can you take from it?
Claims about punishment require clear ethical justification.

Where it applies

  • legal debate
  • death penalty

Putting it to work

  • review legal principles
  • critique capital punishment

Questions to consider

  • What defines murder in society?
  • Is killing always wrong?

Another view

It may sidestep the moral weight of taking life.

More from Benjamin Tucker

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  2. But this is not to say that the society which inflicts capital punishment commits murder. Murder is an offensive act. The term cannot be applied legitimately t…

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  3. The Anarchists believe in the State; only they insist that the greater part, if not all, of the necessity for its existence is the result of an artificial limi…

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