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
    Punishment should not be understood as intended to inflic... — Carmelics
    Home/Justice & Punishment
    HistoryEditSee Inverse

    Punishment should not be understood as intended to inflict pain or suffering.

    Justice & Punishment
    ?Rate how convincing each reason is below to see the overall strength.
    2 reasons for
    1 reason against

    Reasons For

    2 perspectives
    Reason for 1 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Antony Duff's communicative theory holds that punishment aims to censure wrongdoing and induce moral recognition, not to cause suffering.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.Pain or suffering, if it occurs in punishment, is a foreseen side-effect of hard treatment, not its defining purpose or intention.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.An account that makes suffering the aim rather than the medium of punishment cannot distinguish legitimate censure from mere cruelty or revenge.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reason for 2 of 2
    ?
    • 1.Herbert Hart distinguished the 'general justifying aim' of punishment from its definition, allowing deterrence or reform—not suffering—to be its telos.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.If inflicting pain were the intention, then painless or even pleasant punishments would be conceptually incoherent, yet community service and fines are paradigm cases of valid punishment.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Saying punishment is intended to inflict pain or suffering suggests that what matters is pain or suffering as such.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 2.The suggestion that what matters is pain or suffering as such invites the criticism that neither we nor the state should be in the business of trying to inflict pain or suffering on people.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    • 3.Some penal theorists reject the characterization of punishment as intended to inflict pain or suffering as a distortion.
      ?

      Think about whether this reason is strong or weak

    Sign in or register to share your perspective on this statement.

    Next step

    Based on where you are in your exploration

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

    Topics

    Justice & Punishment

    Related

    An account that makes suffering the aim rather than the medium of punishment can...Antony Duff's communicative theory holds that punishment aims to censure wrongdo...Herbert Hart distinguished the 'general justifying aim' of punishment from its d...If inflicting pain were the intention, then painless or even pleasant punishment...
    +4 moreShow less
    Pain or suffering, if it occurs in punishment, is a foreseen side-effect of hard...Saying punishment is intended to inflict pain or suffering suggests that what ma...Some penal theorists reject the characterization of punishment as intended to in...The suggestion that what matters is pain or suffering as such invites the critic...

    Similar

    Saying punishment is intended to inflict pain or suffering suggests th...85%If the harm is intended as a means, Double Effect does not apply.83%Restoration is better understood as the proper aim of punishment, not ...80%Choosing to relieve only Blue while leaving all others in full sufferi...80%

    Source

    AI-extracted2/3 agreementValid
    SEP: legal-punishment
    View source passageHide passage
    First, punishment involves material impositions or exactions that are in themselves typically unwelcome: they deprive people of things that they value (liberty, money, time); they require people to do things that they would not normally want to do or do voluntarily (to spend time on unpaid community labour, to report to a probation officer regularly, to undertake demanding programmes of various kinds). What distinguishes punishment from other kinds of coercive imposition, such as taxation, is that punishment is precisely intended to …: but to what? Some would say that punishment is intended to...
    Extraction notes

    Validity: The premises accurately capture the reasoning presented in the passage against defining punishment as intended to inflict pain or suffering, and the argument structure (an attack on that characterization) is clearly present in the source text.

    Confidence: The text explicitly presents this as a criticism of one proposed definition of punishment.

    Details

    Type
    claim
    Perspectives
    3 (2 for, 1 against)
    Edits
    1 edit