Are Psychopaths Legally Insane?

Insane Delusions

Responsible psychopaths

Psychopaths are agents who lack the normal capacity to feel moral emotions (e.g. guilt based on empathy with the victims of their actions). Evidence for attributing psychopathy at least in some cases to genetic or early childhood causes suggests that psychopaths lack free will. However, the paper defends a sense in which psychopaths still may be construed as responsible for their actions, even ...

Psychopaths and Moral Knowledge

Evolutionary Explanation of Psychopaths

Psychopaths are brutal individuals, having no empathetic concern for others. Initially, the existence of psychopaths seems to be a mystery from an evolutionary point of view. On close examination, however, it can be accommodated by evolutionary theory. Brutal individuals excelled meek individuals in the desperate circumstances where they had to fight their competitors over natural resources for...

Who Is Insane?

between himself and an insane woman, he comes close to a satisfactory definition of insanity when he says to her, "You, of course, are insane, for this reason, the law provides that only insane persons shall be confined in asylums for the insane, while the sane are rigidly excluded. Now, as between you and me, you are legally confined in this asylum, and I am legally excluded; therefore, when y...