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Notes -
Are the death penalty (and penal theories broadly) not downstream from how we feel about others? Such that it’s about feelings, and not “theory”?
I can imagine a criminal to whom I have no social feelings; if the crime is bad, I would like him punished severely, even to the point of death. This is because the absence of administering the punishment is evolutionarily painful to me. Humans evolved to want to punish wrongdoers.
I can, for brief moments, imagine myself being such a loving Amish fella that I genuinely love every human as if they were an adorable puppy or priceless artifact. And I see their sins almost like “mistake theory”. If this is a person’s abiding belief, and he believes in an afterlife, then I can imagine the evolutionary need for revenge simply turning off, entirely.
Is there necessarily more to it than this? Those who opposite the death penalty probably don’t have an abiding feeling of vengeance. Those who support it would probably feel better knowing crime is taken care of (a sense of balance being restored).
I'd say so.
Almost, anyway. Opponents have a weaker desire for vengeance such that it's subordinate to other desires. Like "I would like to be generous in my victory" or "I should live according to these religious principles" or even "I don't want blood on my hands."
But evopsych isn't enough to explain it. The desire for vengeance is competing with other adaptive behaviors. At the extreme end, maybe it drives someone to kill a criminal even though it costs him his own life. That's not any more sound, in an evolutionary sense, than forgiving every sin.
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