Skip to content
Carmelics
TopicsThinkersChangesContributorsLoading account…

    Carmelics

    A reasoning platform. Break down any belief into clear reasons, explore both sides, and weigh the evidence honestly.

    Navigate

    • Topics
    • Search
    • Recent Changes
    • Contribute
    • How It Works
    • Glossary
    • Thinkers
    • Contributors
    • About
    • Statistics
    • Terms
    • Privacy

    Database

    Statements
    —
    Perspectives
    —
    Topics
    —

    Press ? for keyboard shortcuts

    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that All punishment not derived from necessity is tyrannical

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Punishment can serve legitimate expressive functions—condemning wrongdoing—independent of any consequentialist necessity.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Kantian retributivism holds that punishing the guilty is a categorical duty owed to victims, not contingent on social need.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.If punishment is owed as a matter of justice rather than utility, 'necessity' is the wrong criterion for its justification entirely.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Positive law necessarily reflects conventional social norms, and legislatures have legitimate authority to encode community moral standards.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Devlin's harm-to-social-fabric argument holds that acts threatening moral cohesion warrant legal prohibition even absent direct individual victims.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.If social solidarity is a genuine good, then punishing its erosion satisfies a form of necessity Montesquieu's framework fails to accommodate.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.The law is not a mere act of power
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Things indifferent in their own nature are not within the province of law
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Punishing what need not be prohibited exceeds the legitimate scope of law
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

    Strongest counterpoint
    Explore the most compelling reason on the other side.