This book is a historical and philosophical meditation on
paying back and buying back, that is, it is about retaliation and
redemption. It takes the law of the talion - eye for an eye, tooth
for a tooth - seriously. In its biblical formulation that law
states the value of my eye in terms of your eye, the value of your
teeth in terms of my teeth. Eyes and teeth become units of
valuation. But the talion doesn''t stop there. It seems to demand
that eyes, teeth, and lives are also to provide the means of
payment. Bodies and body parts, it seems, have a just claim to
being not just money, but the first and precisest of money
substances. In its highly original way, the book offers a theory of
justice, not an airy theory though. It is about getting even in a
toughminded, unsentimental, but respectful way. And finds that much
of what we take to be justice, honor, and respect for persons
requires, at its core, measuring and measuring up.
目錄:
Preface: a theory of justice?
1. Introductory themes: images of evenness
2. The Talion
3. The Talionic mint: funny money
4. The proper price of property in an eye
5. Teaching a lesson: pain and poetic justice
6. A pound of flesh
7. Remember me: mnemonics, debts of blood, and the making of a
person
8. Dismemberment and price lists
9. Of hands, hospitality, personal space and holiness
10. Satisfaction not guaranteed
11. Comparing values and the ranking game
12. Filthy lucre and holy dollars
Conclusion.