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This paper proposes new grounds for the legal ambivalence about ‘bad character evidence’. It is suggested that errors based on such evidence are profoundly tragic in the Aristotelian sense: the defendant who previously committed crime is likely to reoffend; nevertheless, she beats the odds and refrains from further crime commission – only to then be falsely convicted based on the very odds she has almost heroically managed to beat. It is further proposed that the tragic nature of such false convictions might make them particularly unfair to the defendant. It is, however, submitted that the likelihood of errors based on such evidence is unknown and probably also unknowable. Accordingly, the maximin rule for decision in conditions of deep ignorance is applied, leading to the conclusion that exclusion is to be preferred.
This paper proposes new grounds for the legal ambivalence about ‘bad character evidence’. It is suggested that errors based on such evidence are profoundly tragic in the Aristotelian sense: the defendant who previously committed crime is likely to reoffend; nevertheless, she beats the odds and refrains from further crime commission – only to then be falsely convicted based on the very odds she has almost heroically managed to beat. It is further proposed that the tragic nature of such false convictions might make them particularly unfair to the defendant. It is, however, submitted that the likelihood of errors based on such evidence is unknown and probably also unknowable. Accordingly, the maximin rule for decision in conditions of deep ignorance is applied, leading to the conclusion that exclusion is to be preferred.
This article deals with how to conceive of sin in Romans 5–8. Currently there are two main views concerning the understanding of sin in these chapters. The apocalyptic school describes sin as a power extrinsic to the person. The moral philosophical interpretation, by contrast, contends that sin is a representation of action or the passions. While these schools are usually opposed to each other, this article proposes that the major concerns of the apocalyptic school – to understand sin as a reality that is universally determinative, that precedes human action and exceeds human strength, and from which only God can deliver humanity – are compatible with the interpretation of sin as action in some passages and as the passions in others. There may therefore be space for further collaboration between two views that are often opposed.
One of the most distinctive features of medieval narratives identified thus far is their tendency to weave into their narrative fabric stories that are briefly referred to or implied but remain undeveloped. Recent research in narrative poetics can, however, help bring to light other, previously unrecognized features of medieval and other premodern texts. Possible world theory and the concept of virtual narratives, in particular, can show that medieval narratives are also structured by events (e.g., plans, dreams) that, though thoroughly described, are never realized: they remain, instead, virtual to the end. This essay studies Geoffrey Chaucer’s Franklin’s Tale because, among medieval narratives, it flaunts the richest domain of the virtual. Its plot largely revolves around not what happens in its story world but what could happen in it and yet does not. Paying attention to virtual strings of events in this tale helps us evaluate the characters’ behavior and draw critical conclusions about Chaucer’s aesthetic purposes. It also enables us to trace the development of the genre of lai, to which this tale belongs. A comparative study of the earlier lais of Marie de France and Sir Orfeo suggests that The Franklin’s Tale marks a moment in the history of genre development when medieval lais, due to Chaucer’s interest in unrealized possibilities, begin to resemble modern psychological narratives more than medieval romances.
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