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THE PASSIONS OF PUNISHMENT
Author(s) -
HANTHAN
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
pacific philosophical quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.914
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1468-0114
pISSN - 0279-0750
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0114.2009.01338.x
Subject(s) - remorse , punishment (psychology) , indignation , resentment , commit , passions , abolitionism , psychology , sociology of punishment , set (abstract data type) , forgiveness , criminology , social psychology , philosophy , epistemology , law , political science , politics , criminal law , database , computer science , programming language
I criticize an increasingly popular set of arguments for the justifiability of punishment. Some philosophers try to justify punishment by appealing to what Peter Strawson calls the reactive attitudes – emotions like resentment, indignation, remorse and guilt. These arguments fail. The view that these emotions commit us to punishment rests on unsophisticated views of punishment and of these emotions and their associated behaviors. I offer more sophisticated accounts of punishment, of these emotions and of their associated behaviors that are consistent with Abolitionism, the view that punishment is unjustified.