Integrative Studies 250 Philosophy of Human Nature Fall Quarter 2001   Andrew Mills'  Homepage Course Resources Homepage  Dept. of Religion and Philosophy

Karl Menninger, "Therapy, Not Punishment"

1. What are Menninger's objections to the 'prison-threat' theory of crime control?
   
   
2. Why does Menninger advocate indefinite detention?
   
   
3. How would Menninger reply to the following claim? 
            Those who commit murders and rape don't deserve to be helped. They deserve to 
            be punished--to suffer so as to pay for their crime.
   
   
4. Is Menninger's view compatible or incompatible with a libertarian view of free will? With a compatibilist view of free will? Explain.
   
   
5. According to Menninger's theory, a burglar may spend the rest of his life in 'prison' while a rapist may be released after only a few months.  Do you see why Menninger's theory has this consequence? Does that seem an acceptable or an unacceptable result?  Why or why not?
   
   
6. Menninger is clearly opposed to punishment.  What does he mean by 'punishment'?  Why is he opposed to it? Is he right?
   
   
7. Why is Menninger opposed to using the term 'insane'?
   
   
8. What are Menninger's reasons against capital punishment?

1. What evidence is there in Darrow's article that he is a Hard Determinist?
   
   
2. Darrow's discussion on p. 80 of his article is meant to establish the claim that ther is no difference between the people in the jail and the "respectable classes" outside of the jail. Do you agree?
   
   
3. Can you thnk of additional examples that support his position about the lack of a difference between those two classes of people?
   
   
4. "If every man and woman and child in the world had a chance to make a decent, fair, honest living, there would be no jails, and no lawyers, and no courts." (p. 83)  Do you agree? Is the root cause of all crime economic, as Darrow argues?
   
   
5. What is the remedy Darrow suggests?  Do you agree with him?