On Mercy

Description

Is mercy more important than justice? Since antiquity, mercy has been regarded as a virtue. The power of monarchs was legitimated by their acts of clemency, their mercy demonstrating their divine nature. Yet by the end of the eighteenth century, mercy had become "an injustice committed against society . . . a manifest vice." Mercy was exiled fro

Malcolm Bull is Professor of Art and the History of Ideas at the University of Oxford and a Senior Associate Research Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford. He is the author of books on Vico and Nietzsche.

"One of New Statesman's Books of the Year 2019" "In On Mercy, Malcolm Bull conducts a clever thought experiment on the question of whether mercy might not only be reconciled with justice but could displace it at the center of our political life."---David A. Skeel, Wall Street Journal "While Bull's book is charmingly erudite . . . it is also an important work of political philosophy."---Joe Humphreys, Irish Times "Subtle, scholarly, and interesting. . . .in [this] book, mercy becomes a concept that can illuminate our history, our present, and the dilemmas on the horizon."---Chiara Ricciardone, The Philosopher "Malcolm Bull's On Mercy . . . excavates the virtue of mercy as a means to dethroning the supreme values of our age that have failed us."---Thomas Meaney, New Statesman "Bull's provocative essay provides fresh insights into some foundational issues in political philosophy and mounts a new and engaging challenge to the dominant justice-centered approaches to politics."---Steven Tudor, Criminal Law and Philosophy "Bull makes a more far-reaching case, though, than merely to plead for the significance of mercy-considerations to the political arguments of our age. . . . [A] fascinating essay."---Christopher Brooke, Mind "In short, Bull has given us a fascinating and helpful account of a topic that has been neglected within modern political science. It will repay careful study. And if the going gets difficult, Sunstein's slim volume will provide light relief."---Jonathan Warner, European Legacy