You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

thomblake comments on Empirical claims, preference claims, and attitude claims - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: John_Maxwell_IV 15 November 2012 07:41PM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (125)

You are viewing a single comment's thread. Show more comments above.

Comment author: thomblake 16 November 2012 03:39:11PM *  0 points [-]

In the legal sense, murder is killing which is not legally justified.

Can you provide a citation? I was under the impression that legal killing is not considered murder, even if it is not legally justified. For example, a judge might sentence a criminal to death for unjust reasons, but that would not be considered murder, even though it could be a sort of wrongful death. Or is there a more technical sense of "legally justified" at play?

Comment author: Decius 17 November 2012 12:35:48AM 0 points [-]

The criminal code defines things very explicitly, even though sometimes circularly. For example, the USC defines murder: "Murder is the unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought.

The major distinction is from manslaughter: "Manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being without malice."

Manslaughter is defined in such a way as that it is not an act, but rather either the unintended result of negligence or a reaction which does not constitute a decision.

The moral sense of murder includes many things not included in the legal sense, such as the execution of an innocent person.