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MinKyungLeeFirstPaper 5 - 19 Apr 2012 - Main.MinKyungLee
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| | | However, I do not believe Ronbinson shares this conventional wisdom. In fact, he distinguishes between “civilization’s pathology” and “pathology of our criminals,” hinting that crimes are not necessarily related to pathological states of individual’s minds. Instead, he seems to suggest that crimes represent pathology of our system of civilization (and society) as a whole. Another statement that highlights this idea is, “some of the kindest people I’ve ever known are rapists, and some of the most despicable animals on the face of the earth are rapists.” | |
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< | Then, what is civilization? I think civilization is institutionalization of human nature. For instance, Freud theorizes that thanathos- the conception of death (and more widely interpreted as violence) - is part of human nature. Civilization is not negating this nature of destruction but rather learning how to institutionalize violence. To give a more concrete example, if non-civilized people were guided by their desire for food, civilized people learn how to suppress, control, and express this desire in a systematized way (only eating a certain amount, table manners, develop love for food that acquires
‘learning how to love it.’)
You mean "requires."
This sentence wasn't edited. | >
> | Then, what is civilization? I think civilization is institutionalization of human nature. For instance, Freud theorizes that thanathos- the conception of death (and more widely interpreted as violence) - is part of human nature. Civilization is not negating this nature of destruction but rather learning how to institutionalize violence. To give a more concrete example, if non-civilized people were guided by their desire for food, civilized people learn how to suppress, control, and express this desire in a systematized way (only eating a certain amount, table manners, develop love for food that requires ‘learning how to love it.’) | | | Extending this idea of civilization to criminal law, I think what Ronbinson means by “the criminal law represents civilization’s pathology” is that criminals are institutionalized to express their part of destructive nature in a different way than how non-criminals are institutionalized to express it. | |
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< | Maybe he means something
about the criminal law itself and not about criminals at all?
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> | Maybe he means something about the criminal law itself and not about criminals at all? | | | Vietnam and "the reconciliation of freedom and the state." | | |
Conclusion | |
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< | Following this clue, my aim is not to find an answer for Robinson but to decipher what Robinson meant by the “thang.” The clues lead me to the idea that the “thang” is an interaction between individual nature and the role of social institutionalization. | >
> | Following this clue, my aim is not to find an answer for Robinson but to decipher what Robinson meant by the “thang.” The clues lead me to the idea that the “thang” is the mystery of man’s inhumanity to man. | | | | |
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< | What I want to get closer with this idea of “thang” is to explore how institutions give freedom at the same time of controlling individuals. Also, I want to contemplate the source of different institutionalization that creates a division between people who are prosecuted through criminal law and those who are not.
Neither of these closing
formulations seems to capture Robinson's statement that he has a
criminal law practice because he has a deep need to get as close as
he can to the essence of "the whole thing." How about if I rewrote
"the whole thing" as "the mystery of man's inhumanity to man?"
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> | What I want to get closer with this idea of “thang” is to contemplate how different social institutions contribute to man’s inhumanity to man. | | | \ No newline at end of file |
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