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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
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    Consequentialism implies that punishment of the innocent ... — Carmelics
    Home/Justice & Punishment
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    Challenges→Consequentialism's approach to punishment is objectionable.

    Consequentialism implies that punishment of the innocent is justified when its consequences are good on balance.

    ConsequentialismJustice & Punishment
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    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

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    Reason for 1 of 2
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    • 1.Bentham's felicific calculus holds that moral weight derives entirely from pleasure and pain aggregates, not from the moral status of individuals.
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    • 2.If punishing one innocent person provably prevents greater suffering to many, the calculus yields a net positive outcome that Benthamite consequentialism must endorse.
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    • 3.No special deontological constraint on innocence exists within classical utilitarianism to override this aggregate calculation.
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    Reason for 2 of 2
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    • 1.Smart's act-utilitarianism, as articulated in 'Utilitarianism: For and Against,' explicitly permits acts violating common moral intuitions when consequences favor them.
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    • 2.Smart acknowledges that punishing the innocent is a counterintuitive implication but treats this as evidence of intuition's unreliability, not of utilitarianism's failure.
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    • 3.Rule-utilitarian responses that prohibit such punishment must themselves be justified by consequences, making the prohibition contingent rather than absolute.
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    Reasons Against

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    Reason against
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    • 1.Consequentialism judges practices solely by their consequences.
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    • 2.Consequentialism denies that a person's innocence is morally significant in itself.
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    Topics

    Justice & PunishmentConsequentialism

    Connections

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    Moral Responsibility2 linked

    Related

    Bentham's felicific calculus holds that moral weight derives entirely from pleas...Consequentialism denies that a person's innocence is morally significant in itse...Consequentialism judges practices solely by their consequences.Consequentialism's approach to punishment is objectionable.
    +6 moreShow less
    If punishing one innocent person provably prevents greater suffering to many, th...No special deontological constraint on innocence exists within classical utilita...Punishment of the innocent being justified is morally unacceptable.Rule-utilitarian responses that prohibit such punishment must themselves be just...Smart acknowledges that punishing the innocent is a counterintuitive implication...Smart's act-utilitarianism, as articulated in 'Utilitarianism: For and Against,'...

    Similar

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    Source

    AI-extracted
    SEP: terrorism
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    Adherents of consequentialism judge terrorism, like every other practice, solely by its consequences. Terrorism is not considered wrong in itself, but only if it has bad consequences on balance. The innocence of the victims does not change that. This is an instance of a general trait of consequentialism often highlighted by its critics, for example in the debate about the moral justification of legal punishment. A standard objection to the consequentialist approach to punishment has been that it

    Details

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    premise
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit