Ransom

Abstract

The term ransom refers to something demanded in exchange for the release of something else held hostage. The paradigmatic ransom is some quantity of money, and it is paradigmatically demanded in exchange for the release of a person who has been kidnapped. While criminal organizations, especially terrorist organizations, have long used ransoms as sources of revenue, the topic has attracted virtually no philosophical scrutiny. Nevertheless, it raises important ethical questions, regarding both the moral permissibility of paying ransoms and the permissibility of taking hostages to exact ransoms. This entry demonstrates that the evaluation of these questions, while largely ignored in the philosophical literature, depends upon an array of deeper questions across political and moral philosophy.