Abstract
This chapter introduces the motives for writing the book and emphasizes that the presentation of the arguments and counter-arguments related to the death penalty only makes sense on the basis of objective considerations, with an impartial review of opposing views.
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Notes
- 1.
Slovenská národná strana (Slovak National Party).
- 2.
Front national (National Front).
- 3.
Prawo i Sprawiedliwość (Law and Justice).
- 4.
The word “belief” is not used to mean or refer to faith here, it stands as a synonym for any aprioristic point of view.
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As a result, moral conviction as belief is irrational, which simply means that, as far as its genesis is concerned, it is not a consequence of something but it depends on an aprioristic choice of values (that is, there is no rational reason or logical verification behind it).
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The criterion of scientificity—in contradiction with its older conception—is not verifiability but, instead, falsifiability. It follows from this that an assertion cannot be regarded as a scientific statement if it does not—not even in theory—leave any room for proving (unavoidably only temporarily, owing to the current perception of scientificity) its falseness (in the presence of appropriate conditions), therefore, moral arguments do not constitute any part of science (just like any other declaration or conviction formed on beliefs).
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Clearly, many rational arguments build on a more or less moral base. Nevertheless, this does not necessarily entail that these are “moral” arguments, so it should come as no surprise if moral elements do occur in some or even in most of the upcoming examples that are to be analyzed without one having the obligation to call their rational/empirical nature into question because of this.
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Toth, Z.J. (2020). Introduction. In: Changing Attitudes Towards the Death Penalty. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47557-4_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-47557-4_1
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Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-47556-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-47557-4
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