TRN160 – Critical Summary
In Hart’s article, he mentions two types of theses: The moderate thesis and the extreme thesis. The moderate thesis, discussed by Patrick Devlin, claims that: “shared morality is the cement of society” and “without it there would be aggregates of individuals, but no society” (48) Furthermore, it claims that any deviation from social morality is a crime against society as a whole thus the state has the authority to correct this deviation through the law. The extreme thesis claims that: “the enforcement of morality is regarded as a thing of value” (49) which is not a tool used by the government to justify creating certain laws. The major difference between the two theses is that the moderate thesis gives power to the …show more content…
The disintegration thesis acts as conclusion of the moderate argument. The thesis claims that if the deviations from societal morality are not targeted and dealt by the state then society will break down. In other words, behavior counter popular morality threatens the sustainability and longevity of a society. The public versus private morality argument claims that moral legislation should be established by “public morality” and that this morality is based upon the moral standard of the “reasonable man”. The “reasonable man” or “common man” is an individual who has “common sense” and has the same moral consensus of the majority. The conclusion is that, regardless of an individual’s private morality, public morality takes precedence in the …show more content…
If the public believes in a certain moral standard than that is the standard which the government must represent. An example of this is seen when Devlin argues the justification for the criminalization of homosexuality: “It is the power of a common sense and not the power of reason that is behind the judgments of society…There is, for example, a general abhorrence of homosexuality….If that is the genuine feeling of the society in which we live, I do not see how society can be denied the right to eradicate it” (322) Although Devlin’s argument is populist, it fits into the extreme thesis since it places the moral burden on the majority. On the other hand, it can be argued that the reasonable man argument refutes the extreme thesis since the reasonable man’s ideologies represent popular morality. Again, this is a populist
In Hart’s article, he mentions two types of theses: The moderate thesis and the extreme thesis. The moderate thesis, discussed by Patrick Devlin, claims that: “shared morality is the cement of society” and “without it there would be aggregates of individuals, but no society” (48) Furthermore, it claims that any deviation from social morality is a crime against society as a whole thus the state has the authority to correct this deviation through the law. The extreme thesis claims that: “the enforcement of morality is regarded as a thing of value” (49) which is not a tool used by the government to justify creating certain laws. The major difference between the two theses is that the moderate thesis gives power to the …show more content…
The disintegration thesis acts as conclusion of the moderate argument. The thesis claims that if the deviations from societal morality are not targeted and dealt by the state then society will break down. In other words, behavior counter popular morality threatens the sustainability and longevity of a society. The public versus private morality argument claims that moral legislation should be established by “public morality” and that this morality is based upon the moral standard of the “reasonable man”. The “reasonable man” or “common man” is an individual who has “common sense” and has the same moral consensus of the majority. The conclusion is that, regardless of an individual’s private morality, public morality takes precedence in the …show more content…
If the public believes in a certain moral standard than that is the standard which the government must represent. An example of this is seen when Devlin argues the justification for the criminalization of homosexuality: “It is the power of a common sense and not the power of reason that is behind the judgments of society…There is, for example, a general abhorrence of homosexuality….If that is the genuine feeling of the society in which we live, I do not see how society can be denied the right to eradicate it” (322) Although Devlin’s argument is populist, it fits into the extreme thesis since it places the moral burden on the majority. On the other hand, it can be argued that the reasonable man argument refutes the extreme thesis since the reasonable man’s ideologies represent popular morality. Again, this is a populist