On Mercy
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On Mercy

Malcolm Bull

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eBook - PDF

On Mercy

Malcolm Bull

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About This Book

Is mercy more important than justice? Since antiquity, mercy has been regarded as a virtue. The power of monarchs was legitimated by their acts of clemency, their mercy demonstrating their divine nature. Yet by the end of the eighteenth century, mercy had become "an injustice committed against society... a manifest vice." Mercy was exiled from political life. How did this happen?In this book, Malcolm Bull analyses and challenges the Enlightenment's rejection of mercy. A society operating on principles of rational self-interest had no place for something so arbitrary and contingent, and having been excluded from Hobbes's theory of the state and Hume's theory of justice, mercy disappeared from the lexicon of political theory. But, Bull argues, these idealised conceptions have proved too limiting. Political realism demands recognition of the foundational role of mercy in society. If we are vulnerable to harm from others, we are in need of their mercy. By restoring the primacy of mercy over justice, we may constrain the powerful and release the agency of the powerless. And if arguments for capitalism are arguments against mercy, might the case for mercy challenge the very basis of our thinking about society and the state?An important contribution to contemporary political philosophy from an inventive thinker, On Mercy makes a persuasive case for returning this neglected virtue to the heart of political thought.

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Information

Publisher
Princeton University Press
Year
2019
ISBN
9780691185736
Topic
Philosophy
Subtopic
Ethics & Moral Philosophy
1
In 
De 
clementia
Seneca 
emphasised 
that 
mercy 
pre-
supposes 
a 
radical 
asymmetry 
between 
the 
person 
who 
grants 
it 
and 
the 
person 
who 
receives 
it. 
at 
asym-
metry 
is 
not 
necessarily 
a 
function 
of 
status; 
mercy 
is 
the 
prerogative 
of 
anyone 
whom 
fortune 
has 
favoured 
in 
the 
struggle 
for 
power. 
However, 
the 
power 
to 
grant 
mercy 
will 
more 
consistently 
be 
found 
in 
a 
public 
than 
a 
private 
context, 
and 
‘in 
rulers 
it 
has 
an 
especial 
comeliness’.
1
e 
claim 
had 
a 
history 
behind 
it. 
In 
the 
early 
Roman 
republic, 
mercy 
had 
played 
little 
role, 
save 
when 
granted 
to 
the 
vanquished 
by 
Roman 
generals 
in 
foreign 
wars. 
During 
the 
civil 
wars, 
however, 
it 
was 
self-conciously 
adopted 
as 
an 
instrument 
of 
policy 
by 
Julius 
Caesar, 
who 
offered 
clemency 
to 
his 
defeated 
Roman 
enemies 
just 
as 
he 
had 
earlier 
done 
to 
the 
Gauls.
2
is 
was 
usually 
accepted, 
though 
for 
men 
of 
high 
status 
it 
posed 
a 
dilemma: 
to 
accept 
mercy 
was 

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