Is a killer responsible 100% for their actions?

Discussion in 'General Philosophy' started by darksidZz, Jan 28, 2015.

?

What you believe?

Poll closed Feb 17, 2015.
  1. Yes

    50.0%
  2. No

    28.6%
  3. Maybe

    21.4%
  4. Unsure

    0 vote(s)
    0.0%
  1. jabbaska Registered Member

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    Interesting reading and it applies very well to the thread's title, not for Psycopathy though

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    . Anyway, I read your link "diagonally" and I understand the concept of Fundamental Atribution Error. I've got something one of my teachers used to tell us that may or may not be a good example but hey:

    Mr. X is going to work. He's driving his car along the main road after he left his house. There's quite a lot of crosswalks until he reaches the end of the road to finally get to the freeway. He stops on the first crosswalk for someone to cross, he stops on the second and on the third but on the last one, he realizes he can go through without danger for the person who's trying to cross it. He crosses without stopping and the person thinks "YOU BASTARD! YOU COLD BASTARD", without knowing the guy had stopped 3 times before him. What does this tell us?
     
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  3. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    There are support groups that can help others out until and after medications are started Those groups will be honest with everyone or at least they are supposed to be.
     
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  5. Light Travelling It's a girl O lord in a flatbed Ford Registered Senior Member

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    Isn't any murderer a psychopath to some degree or other. The act of killing, whether premeditated or however seemingly rationally motivated, takes the individual so far out of social norms that some kind of insanity can be said to have taken place.

    I do not consider insanity is a complete excuse of guilt for murder though. A contributing factor yes. But not one that absolves responsibility.
     
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  7. Light Travelling It's a girl O lord in a flatbed Ford Registered Senior Member

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    That we have all got a little psychopath inside us. And it is our own responsibility to control it.
     
  8. jabbaska Registered Member

    Messages:
    40
    No, tells us it all depends on an individual's perception of his/her present reality.

    No, Psycopathy is not something abstract, it is a defect in one's brain. There is no cure and there is no way they can think like us, feel like us or rather, do anything like us. If they manage to live among us it is because they understand they are different, that doesn't mean though, that they won't cut you in half just by meddling in their affairs. I wouldn't call Psycopathy a disease but it is certainly a medical condition. You can't become a Psycopath, you are born one. Also for any Psychiatrists here, is it possible for physical trauma to the brain trigger Psycopathy or at least something that resembles it in most ways?
     
  9. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Plenty of soldiers perform premeditated killings and are not psychopaths.
     
  10. Light Travelling It's a girl O lord in a flatbed Ford Registered Senior Member

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    Ok not psychopath.. I will temper that by using the looser term insanity

    And what is the 'it' that the above sentence refers to. I would say 'it' all depends on; is 'our ability to control ourselves' depends on
    Road rage is when control breaks down. We often don't know the circumstances leading up to it.

    Yes I agree everything depends on our perception. It is a very subjective world we live in.


    But I would still say that all murders possess some degree of a lapse of sanity. They are to a greater or less degree are insane. Purely by the belief that an acceptable solution to a problem is killing somebody. It depends on ones definition of sanity I guess. But I would say if a person sat in session with a psychiatrist and revealed they thought it was a good idea to kill someone to solve their life problems then the psychiatrist would certainly question their sanity.

    spur of the moment murders to can be called a temporary lapse in reason / or sanity. They certainly represent a loss of control.

    Depends what we are talking about really, I am talking about murder rather than killing, so it depends on whether you count soldiers as killers or murderers. If we are talking about killing then that brings things like doctors mucking a surgery up into play and a whole raft of other things. So I am reading this thread as about murder.

    Back to soldiers though. What is war if not collective insanity?
    And how many soldiers come back with mental problems... and do we really know who many of those mental problems were there before hand?
     
  11. jabbaska Registered Member

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    40
    Soldiers were brainwashed. Psycopaths are not insane in the literal sense of the word. They just lack the brain function that could make them feel emotions like us.
     
  12. billvon Valued Senior Member

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    Here is what you said (and what I replied to) - "The act of killing, whether premeditated or however seemingly rationally motivated, takes the individual so far out of social norms that some kind of insanity can be said to have taken place."
    You can call war insane. Nevertheless, most of the soldiers I know who have had to do such things remain sane by any reasonable definition. (There are, of course, exceptions.)
     
  13. Light Travelling It's a girl O lord in a flatbed Ford Registered Senior Member

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    Ok I take your point that I referred to killers earlier. And you have your opinion on soldiers.

    Bit what is your stance on murderers?
     

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