Comments about the introduction

Comments about the Introduction
I added what is currently the second paragraph to the introduction. It mentions alternative ethical philosophies (deontology and virtue ethics) and alternatives to the punishment that is the focus of much of this book (alternatives include restorative and distributive justice). My intent was to provide some connection to the broader set of philosophical thought to which this book belongs. I have seen other web sites that offer no alternative interpretation thereby leading some novices to conclude that their philosophy reflects final solutions to the problems that are presented. I do not want to suggest that everything in this book reflects the final answers, and this site does not yet have other pages that perform that function. rehoot, May 16, 2011.

Tidying up
I've made a series of changes to the descriptions of Chapter 1-8.

Some style changes, and some substance changes. The substance changes are general though. I've tried not to alter interpretation of specific passages.

Feel free to reverse any changes if you think they were inappropriate.

I'll continue through chapter 9 onwards soon. Then, I think I'll start from 1 again, by correcting tense e.g. it should read Bentham writes, not Bentham wrote. RyanCarey 14:04, 3 June 2011 (BST)


 * In the long run, it might help to declare the writing style for the wiki site (i.e., specify the name of a book on writing style that the site follows). From force of habit (writing about psychology) I refer to books written in the 1800s in the past tense, but if the whole site will be in present tense, that is fine with me. Rehoot 09:02, 28 June 2011 (BST)
 * I agree that we'll want to declare the writing style at some stage. I see no better place to start than Wikipedia's Manual of Style. If something is good enough for Wikipedia, I think it's good enough for us, so I'd be happy to formally elevate its status, so that its the method of resolving style disputes. They don't specify tense at Wikipedia, although our same discussion has arisen over there:. As they've said and as you seem to allude, the important thing is consistency. I'm happy to leave pages for old books in past tense. Although it goes against my instinct, it's not clearly worse. It's probably more common too. So I'll leave it. RyanCarey 15:34, 28 June 2011 (BST)