Hard Determinism and Punishment: A Practical Reductio

Law and Philosophy - Tập 30 - Trang 353-367 - 2011
Saul Smilansky1
1Department of Philosophy, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

Tóm tắt

How can hard determinism deal with the need to punish, when coupled with the obligation to be just? I argue that even though hard determinists might find it morally permissible to incarcerate wrongdoers apart from lawful society, they are committed to the punishment’s taking a very different form from common practice in contemporary Western societies. Hard determinists are in fact committed to what I will call funishment, instead of punishment. But, by its nature funishment is a practical reductio of hard determinism: it makes implementing hard determinism impossible to contemplate. Indeed, the social practices that hard determinism requires turn out to be morally bad even according to hard determinism itself. I conclude by briefly reflecting upon the implications.

Tài liệu tham khảo

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