What is murder? How should we define the word?
Elizabeth Anscombe argues that the central idea of murder is the "unjust killing of humans" (see p. 8 of her work Ethics, Religion and politics). Murder is thus not simply a legal concept. For instance, think about the horrific acts that were committed during the Nazi regime. Whether there was a written law against the Holocaust or not, one could still rightly contend that Hitler and his forces murdered other human beings on a grand scale. Anscombe points out that if we restrict "murder" to a legal concept, we will end up committing the error of Thrasymachus, namely, legal positivism.
Not every "unjust killing of humans" is a murder. Suppose I make a vow not to kill in personal self-defense. (Presumably such a vow is permissible as a witness to the love of the Lamb.) And then someone threatens my life and I kill him in self-defense. Justice towards God required me to keep my vows, so the killing was unjust. However, the killing wasn't a murder, but a vow-breaking.
ReplyDelete(By the way, this is a really neat blog.)
Anscombe's basic point, of course, remains: murder is a moral, not a legal, thing.
Dear Alex,
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind if I address you in that way. Please let me know if you don't like to have your name shortened in that way.
First, let me say that it is a pleasure to have you offer some remarks on one of my blog posts. And thanks for your kind words about my blog. I also enjoying reading your thoughts on Prosblogion and at your own blog.
It has been some years since I read Anscombe's book and took down some notes from it. I notice that I do not give her definition of murder, but rather say that the "central idea" of murder is the "unjust killing of humans."
Now, I hope that I have represented Anscombe properly since she defines murder as "the deliberate killing of the innocent, whether for its own sake or as a means to some further end."
Therefore, she appends the notion of intent to her definition for murder. As you know, other state legal codes define the term in a similar way. I understand what you're saying about a promise to God, which raises even more questions, but what do you think about Anscombe's precise definition for "murder"?
Thanks,
Edgar