Philosophy Club Meeting: Mens Rea in Law and Morality

Please join us in Auerbach 320 or online this Wednesday, Sept. 6, from 1 p.m. – 2 p.m., for our next meeting of the University of Hartford Philosophy Club as Brian Skelly presents for discussion: “Mens Rea in Law and Morality."

To join the meeting online, click here. If you have trouble joining, call Brian Skelly at 413.273.2273.

The term mens rea has been in the news lately, mostly in relation to legal proceedings against those who allegedly conspired in various ways to interfere with the processes of a federal election. It denotes criminal intent as a necessary condition of criminal liability, in many cases explicitly and in most if not all other cases implicitly. Along with its companion actus reus, or criminal act, it constitutes the formula of criminal liability (alternately: culpability), i.e., that a crime was committed with criminal or at least non-innocent intent. This distinction, also relevant to philosophical moral reflection, creates a tension in law between public interest and individual fairness, in the sense that defining criminal liability partly in terms of mens rea poses an added burden on the prosecution leading to a lesser likelihood of conviction, whereas its explicit omission in some positive law statutes leads to a greater possibility of criminalizing the innocent.  Although this tension might be lessened by philosophical attention to the matter, it will always remain true that our outward actions are more easily subject to empirical proof than our internal mental states. Still, understanding better through philosophical reflection what these mental states are might broaden our abilities to empirically detect and expose them.

The terms rea and reus are ultimately feminine and masculine adjectival forms respectively of the Latin term res, which means ‘thing’, ‘substance’, or matter, from which the English words ‘real’ and ‘reality’ are derived. Roman law typically used the term ‘res’ to refer to a case brought before the court. This led in time to the alleged criminal act of a defendant to be referred to as the ‘actus reus’; this usage gradually shifted in meaning to denote ‘criminal act’, as it does now, with ‘mens rea’ fitting into the equation as ‘criminal intent’.

See the full document here.

Brian Skelly’s publications include Introduction to Philosophy - Themes for Classroom and Reflection, Third Edition, Cognella, 2022. ISBN: 978-1-7935-2686-1; and Logic Between the Lines - Making Philosophical Sense of Logic and Logical Sense of Philosophy, Cognella, First Edition Coming out by the end of 2023.  

An ongoing weekly tradition at the University since 2001, the University of Hartford Philosophy Club is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.   

Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.  

Food and drink are served. Come and go as you wish. Bring friends. Suggest topics and activities. Take over the club! It belongs to you!