Philosophy of Punishment
The seminar will focus on what (if anything) makes it morally
permissible for the state to inflict “hard treatment” on people, against
their will, provided they have been found guilty of criminal offenses.
Class participation will play a part in grading the students. In
addition, each student must write a final paper, roughly 20 to 30 pages,
that examines one (or more) of the positions we have discussed and
contains some original thinking (i.e., not simply repeating what was
said by authors we’ve read). (This paper should fulfill the substantial
analytical writing requirement.)
After preliminary consideration
of problems surrounding the very definition of punishment, we
will examine the two principal methods of justifying the practice of
punishment: consequentialist theories and retributive theories. We will
explore the strengths and drawbacks of each approach. Toward the end
of the semester, we will consider mixed or hybrid theories that try to
combine elements of both consequentialism and retributivism, and perhaps
some interesting new approaches, such as those put forward by Mitchell
Berman and Warren Quinn, or the recent development of "restorative
justice."