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It is not the case that Positive retributivism holds that desert provides an in-principle sufficient reason for punishment, though only in principle.
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Reasons For
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Reason for 1 of 2
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1.
Desert claims presuppose robust metaphysical free will, which hard determinists like Derk Pereboom argue is empirically undermined.
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2.
If agents lack the sourcehood required for basic desert, punishment cannot be sufficiently justified by desert alone, even in principle.
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Reason for 2 of 2
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1.
Consequentialists like Bentham hold that suffering is intrinsically bad, making the deliberate infliction of pain require positive justification beyond mere desert.
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2.
A reason that is 'sufficient in principle' but routinely overridden by costs is functionally indistinguishable from a prima facie reason, collapsing positive into negative retributivism.
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Reasons Against
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Reason against
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1.
An offender's desert provides a reason in favour of punishment: the state should punish those found guilty to the extent that they deserve, because they deserve it.
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2.
There are good reasons — to do with the costs, both material and moral, of punishment — why we should not even try to punish all the guilty.
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