This criticism is completely unresponsive. Sally is not making
an argument based on deterrence, so the appeal to a lack of a deterrence
effect is irrelevant in this context. (In a real situation, we would
also want Dick to cite the source(s) of his claims on the deterence effect
of capital punishment, but here we are just concerned with the structure
of the debate). The claim about hypocrisy is also non-responsive,
as the whole point of Sally's argument is that capital punishment is not
murder, but justified retribution (one might even say that Dick is begging
the question here).
Return to Exercise on Argument
Analysis
Return to the Philosophy 120 home page