Compassion and Evil

This book examines the idea of punishment and some alternative humane methods of treating crime such as the public health-quarantine approach. A well-researched work on a subject of wide philosophical, legal, social, political and popular interest, it develops illuminating critiques of several important positions while also proposing a new and innovative approach to the key issues. It highlights how especially in societies with a weak welfare state and wide social and economic inequalities, punishment may sometimes be necessary for crime prevention even when such punishment is unjust, thus presenting a moral dilemma. The author shows the relevance of Gandhi’s practical idealism to such problems. The volume will be of interest to scholars and researchers of philosophy, law, politics, sociology, South Asian Studies as well as to general readers.

Vinit Haksar has taught Philosophy at the Universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Oxford, UK. He is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Edinburgh and an Honorary Fellow, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh. He has held many visiting professorships including John Milton Scott Visiting Professorship, Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada, Dartmouth College, New Hampshire and Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. He has written several books including Equality, Liberty and Perfectionism (1979); Indivisible Selves and Moral Practice (1991); Rights, Communities and Disobedience (2001); Gandhi and Liberalism (2018), and has published extensively in anthologies and international journals of philosophy, politics and law, apart from delivering many public lectures.

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