The varieties of retributive experience

Philosophical Quarterly 52 (207):145-163 (2002)
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Abstract

Retribution is often dismissed as augmenting the initial harm done, rather than ameliorating it. This criticism rests on a crude view of retribution. In our actual practice in informal situations and in the workings of the reactive (properly called 'retributive') sentiments, retribution is true to the gravity of wrongdoing, but does aim to ameliorate it. Through wrongdoing, offenders become alienated from the moral community: their actions place their commitment to its core values in doubt. We recognize this status in blaming, a withdrawal of civility and solidarity which symbolizes the moral distance wrongdoers have put between them and us. Atonement is the means by which they make themselves 'at one' again with the community. Retribution is properly understood as a cycle which recognizes disruption and alienation, but aims at reconciliation

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Christopher Bennett
Ryerson University

Citations of this work

Hypocrisy and the Standing to Blame.Kyle G. Fritz & Daniel Miller - 2018 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 99 (1):118-139.
The Self-Effacing Functionality of Blame.Matthieu Queloz - 2021 - Philosophical Studies 178 (4):1361-1379.
Praise.Daniel Telech - 2022 - Philosophy Compass 17 (10):1-19.

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References found in this work

Persons and Punishment.Herbert Morris - 1968 - The Monist 52 (4):475-501.
Responsibility and atonement.Richard Swinburne - 1989 - New York: Oxford University Press.
Arational actions.Rosalind Hursthouse - 1991 - Journal of Philosophy 88 (2):57-68.
Trials and Punishments.John Cottingham & R. A. Duff - 1987 - Philosophical Quarterly 37 (149):448.

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