Emotions, action and excuses

Abstract

 In this paper I offer a philosophical analysis of some basic aspects of emotions, excuses and criminal responsibility. Firstly, I briefly discuss about emotions. Secondly, I outline some of the legal rules that our penal codes contain about emotions. Finally, the main issue of this paper is to show that the different grounds that have been used to justify criminal excuses are reflected, in turn, in the various ways of understanding emotions. For that reason, I argue that there is no genuine disagreement between the different families of theories that seek to justify excuses. In addition, these theories are insufficient to explain emotional excuses as we understand them in our legal systems.