Summary

Keywords

Punishment Utilitarianism consequentialism future-directed deterrence John Rawls telishment Two Concepts of Rules retribution John Darley intentional behavior moral outrage

Full Transcript

Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature (PHIL 181) The lecture begins with a consideration of the traditional consequentialist account of punishment---that punishment is justified by its deterrent effect on future crimes. Traditional criticisms of the view are presented, and John Rawls' two-level justification for punishment is offered as one possible way to avoid such criticisms by bringing together consequentialist and deontological justifications of punishment in a single theory. Next, Professor Gendler reviews some empirical research on punishment intuitions, including data on moral outrage and the "Knobe effect". The lecture concludes with a brief discussion of how moral luck interacts with intuitions about punishment. 00:00 - Chapter 1. Consequentialist Justifications of Punishment 15:05 - Chapter 2. Two-Level Theories of Punishment 22:16 - Chapter 3. Empirical Research on Punishment 41:54 - Chapter 4. Luck and Punishment Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://oyc.yale.edu This course was recorded in Spring 2011.