Books by Jonathan A Jacobs
These are two audio-visual presentations I made. One at the University of San Diego and the other... more These are two audio-visual presentations I made. One at the University of San Diego and the other at the Remnant Trust in Indianapolis. Both presentations are discussions of the moral thought of medieval monotheisms, with a focus on ways in which Jewish legal and moral reasoning and Islamic legal and moral reasoning share some features, while neither has a history of natural law, such as is found in Christianity. I discuss the ways that in Jewish and Islamic thought tradition is a source of rational justification without requiring natural law.
The third presentations (just audio) is a discussion of criminal justice with a focus on punishment, as part of a series on law hosted by an attorney in Philadelphia.
Criminology and Moral Philosophy: Empirical Methods and the Study of Values, 2022
Material that has been published in Criminology and Moral Philosophy, Routledge 2022. This is the... more Material that has been published in Criminology and Moral Philosophy, Routledge 2022. This is the first chapter, explicating some of the main framework ideas that shape the rest of the book. It includes a critique of the fact/value distinction and argues that normatively is pervasive in human action and it can be an appropriate object of empirical inquiry.
This book offers an introduction to the philosophical issues of criminal justice ethics in a way ... more This book offers an introduction to the philosophical issues of criminal justice ethics in a way suitable for students of criminology and criminal justice. It links philosophical concepts with empirical research in criminology and provides readers with a single-volume treatment of key issues illustrating the main problems of criminal justice ethics in western jurisdictions, anchored in the fundamental features of political and legal order. Coverage includes: A discussion concerning the relation between law and morality; The aims and justification of punishment;
The Liberal State and Criminal Sanction: Seeking Justice and Civility, 2020
Current forms of incarceration in the U.S. and U.K. are morally problematic in ways that are anti... more Current forms of incarceration in the U.S. and U.K. are morally problematic in ways that are antithetical to the values and principles of liberal democracy. While indicating those morally problematic features the book defends the basic political and legal culture of the U.S. and U.K. A significant remaking of the political order is not needed for the required reforms of incarceration to be made. Greater faithfulness to the values and principles of liberal democracy could be adequate for such reforms. It is crucial to make those reforms because of the ways prisoners are currently being harmed, rendering many of them incapable of reintegrating successfully into civil society. The liberal order makes a dynamic, pluralistic civil society possible, and participating in civil society gives people a reason to value the liberal order. That relation is weakened by penal practices that diminish the agential capacities of offenders, and fail to respect them as members of society. The book explores the relation between criminal justice and justice more comprehensively understood, highlighting the distinctive elements of criminal justice. It explains the role of desert in criminal justice and why criminal justice needs to be distinguished from distributive justice. Criminal justice includes a retributivist conception of punishment, one in which desert, proportionality, and parsimony are centrally important. A retributivist conception of punishment most effectively respects the voluntariness and accountability of agents in ways well suited to a liberal political order. The account examines misinterpretations of retributivism and highlights weaknesses of consequentialist approaches to sanction.
Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory, 2019
A version of this has been published in Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory, eds. Jonathan Cr... more A version of this has been published in Research Handbook on Natural Law Theory, eds. Jonathan Crowe, Constance Lee, Edward Elgar Publisher, 2019. Pp. 130-147.
I explain how Judaism includes important points of overlap with the natural law tradition and with conceptions of practical wisdom but is not to be identified with either of those. The notion of a moral epistemology of rational tradition has its own disticntive features.
Arts & Humanities in Higher Education, 2009
These remarks are concerned with how we might distinguish the humanities from other intellectual ... more These remarks are concerned with how we might distinguish the humanities from other intellectual projects and with explicating the importance of the humanities as a way of deepening and enlarging our understanding of numerous types of value and the relations between them.
In second Samuel 11 of the Hebrew Bible David orders his captain Joab: "Set ye Uriah in the foref... more In second Samuel 11 of the Hebrew Bible David orders his captain Joab: "Set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten, and die." Uriah's wife was Bath-sheba, and David wanted her for himself. And chapter 12 tells how he got her: The prophet Nathan tells David a story of two men, one rich, one poor. A traveler came to the rich man, a man with many flocks and herds. To feed the traveler the rich man spared his own flock but took the poor man's lamb, his only lamb, which "was as a daughter to him." David became very angry and declared, "As the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this deserveth to die; and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity." Nathan answers, at 12:7, "Thou art the man."
Social Science and Modern SOCIETY, 2013
This paper explicates some of the chief errors involved in the putative fact/value distinction an... more This paper explicates some of the chief errors involved in the putative fact/value distinction and suggests ways in which facts can be understood to have ethical (or other valuative) significance. I also consider some implications for social scientific explanation and method.
The paper explicates the ways in which the acquisition of Vice can diminish a person's agential c... more The paper explicates the ways in which the acquisition of Vice can diminish a person's agential capacity though not in a way that also diminishes responsibility. If the person's vices were acquired through voluntary activity the individual's cognitive and motivational defects (in regard to what is ethically required) do not excuse or exempt the person from moral responsibility. This is contrasted with "coercive corruption," i.e., situations in which the agent's responsibility is diminished on account of vices acquired in ways that are less than voluntary. Gabriele Taylor's Deadly Vices figures prominently in the analysis. This paper is forthcoming in an anthology on virtue and vice.
This chapter explicates the main basic forms of ethical theory, such as consequentialism, Kantian... more This chapter explicates the main basic forms of ethical theory, such as consequentialism, Kantian non-consequentialism, Intuitionist non-consequentialism, virtue-centered theory, and contractarianism, as well as some other issues related to the basic forms.
An account of how agents can acquire states of character that render them unable to attain sound ... more An account of how agents can acquire states of character that render them unable to attain sound ethical understanding and motives though without also rendering them less than responsible for their actions and characters.
An account of the voluntariness of certain types of habits and of states of character, looking at... more An account of the voluntariness of certain types of habits and of states of character, looking at both habituation by others and habituation of oneself, and how a state of character can be voluntary even if the person did not intend to acquire it.
An explication of Aristotle's conception of a living entity, perception, concept-acquisition, and... more An explication of Aristotle's conception of a living entity, perception, concept-acquisition, and intellectual activity---and how they are related to each other.
An explication of how the notions of substance, form, and actuality are integral to Aristotle's a... more An explication of how the notions of substance, form, and actuality are integral to Aristotle's account of the intelligibility of entities and processes, and how the three notions are related to each other.
Discussion of various naturalistic conceptions of moral value and non-naturalistic conceptions, i... more Discussion of various naturalistic conceptions of moral value and non-naturalistic conceptions, including discussions of supervenience, moral explanation, Aristotle, Hume, and some contemporary thinkers.
Explication of ethical and intellectual virtue and how they figure in happiness.
This chapter is a discussion of Aristotle's philosophical method, with a focus on relations to pr... more This chapter is a discussion of Aristotle's philosophical method, with a focus on relations to predecessors, dialectic and demonstration, the role of appearances, and the significance of different degrees of precision.
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Books by Jonathan A Jacobs
The third presentations (just audio) is a discussion of criminal justice with a focus on punishment, as part of a series on law hosted by an attorney in Philadelphia.
I explain how Judaism includes important points of overlap with the natural law tradition and with conceptions of practical wisdom but is not to be identified with either of those. The notion of a moral epistemology of rational tradition has its own disticntive features.
The third presentations (just audio) is a discussion of criminal justice with a focus on punishment, as part of a series on law hosted by an attorney in Philadelphia.
I explain how Judaism includes important points of overlap with the natural law tradition and with conceptions of practical wisdom but is not to be identified with either of those. The notion of a moral epistemology of rational tradition has its own disticntive features.
Published by Routledge, March 2022
will be published by Hart Publishing, and is edited by Anthony Bottoms and Antje duBois-Pedain (both at Cambridge)