William Ian Miller pinpoints the key difficulty in dealing with compensation for bodily loss: the market price of the lost part cannot match the value of its former contribution to the unmolested organism. Lex talionis affords a solution to this disparity by enabling the victim to opt for incurring a reciprocal loss in lieu of accepting monetary compensation offered by the party responsible for his injury. The ensuing threat of losing a valuable organ inspires the perpetrator to raise his offer to the level implicit in its ownership.
Author(s): William Ian Miller
Edition: aFirst Edition First Printing
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 282
Cover......Page 1
Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface: A Theory of Justice?......Page 11
The Scales of Justice......Page 17
Even and Odd......Page 24
Just, Even, Quite, and Mere......Page 27
Paying for Peace......Page 31
Getting Even?......Page 33
The Compensation Principle......Page 40
The Euphony of Eyes and Teeth......Page 43
Body Parts and Money......Page 47
Paying Gods in Bodies and Blood......Page 52
Cutting Up Bread, Cutting Up the Body......Page 58
FOUR: The Proper Price of Property in an Eye......Page 62
Property Rules and Liability Rules......Page 64
Life Is Cheap?......Page 70
Instruction on Feeling Another’s Pain......Page 74
Deuteronomy’s Artful Talionic Lesson......Page 79
Coda: Mixing Metaphors: Paying Back and Paying For......Page 84
SIX: A Pound of Flesh......Page 86
Shearing fleece and eating (human) flesh......Page 89
Have Mercy......Page 93
The Humanizing Force of Vengefulness......Page 99
Burning in the Memory......Page 105
Bloody Tokens and the Relics of the Unavenged Dead......Page 107
Remembering the Dead and Not Forgetting Oneself......Page 111
The Happy Dead......Page 115
Grief, Guilt, and Tormenting Ghosts......Page 118
The Mnemonics of Wergeld and the Fragility of Well-Being......Page 120
EIGHT: Dismemberment and Price Lists......Page 125
Slave Values......Page 127
The Sum of the Parts......Page 129
Flipping the Bird......Page 138
NINE: Of Hands, Hospitality, Personal Space, and Holiness......Page 146
Hospitality and Mund......Page 147
Hands and Reach......Page 151
Wholly Holy......Page 154
Release of Pressure, or Filling the Void Up Full?......Page 156
Serving Up Revenge: Bitter or Sweet......Page 161
The Mind of the Vengeance Target:
Regret, Remorse, Cluelessness......Page 162
Killing Him or Keeping Him Alive for Scoffing,
and Other Fine Points......Page 167
ELEVEN: Comparing Values and the Ranking Game......Page 176
The Politics of Comparing Values, or What’s Eating
the Incommensuralists......Page 177
The Ranking Game......Page 184
Ranking at a Viking Feast......Page 190
TWELVE: Filthy Lucre and Holy Dollars......Page 196
Dirty Dollars and the Making of Pricelessness......Page 199
Buying Back and the Sacred......Page 204
Everything for Sale......Page 207
Conclusion......Page 213
One. Introductory Themes: Images of Evenness......Page 219
Two. The Talion......Page 221
Three. The Talionic Mint: Funny Money......Page 227
Four. The Proper Price of Property in an Eye......Page 233
Five. Teaching a Lesson: Pain and Poetic Justice......Page 237
Six. A Pound of Flesh......Page 239
Seven. Remember Me: Mnemonics, Debts (of Blood), and the Making of the Person......Page 242
Eight. Dismemberment and Price Lists......Page 244
Nine. Of Hands, Hospitality, Personal Space, and Holiness......Page 248
Ten. Satisfaction Not Guaranteed......Page 250
Eleven. Comparing Values and the Ranking Game......Page 252
Twelve. Filthy Lucre and Holy Dollars......Page 255
Works Cited......Page 259
Index......Page 275
