Michael Ignatieff

From the London Review dated 18 June 1981

Mad or bad?

While it is a cold business to point out contradictions in anyone’s feelings, it must be said that our right to punish Sutcliffe depends on the presumption that he is a man responsible for his acts. The law does not punish animals. On the other hand, if we wish to consider man an animal, we must be able to think of a species in nature which engages in gratuitous, non-utilitarian taking of life among its own kind. It has been said with justice that the old Latin adage, man is wolf to man, is unfair to wolves. We cannot have it both ways. We must recognise him as one of our own kind. [ read more . . . ]

Selected bibliography