PHILOS 2G03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Retributive Justice, Moral Agency, Paternalism

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHILOS 2G03
• Professor: Matt Grellette

Document Summary

So we"re going to talk about retributivism (the last out of the 3 theories we"ve considered) People ought to be payed back for the crimes that they commit . Embraces the principle of jus talionis - people ought to be payed back in proportion to the crime that they"ve committed . If someone has killed another human being (or committed a crime that is comparable), then they ought to be killed in return - as this is a deserved and proportional response. This is this single most influential justification for capital punishment, but it"s also the most untheorized (so you have to look really hard to figure out why it might be right) Seems simple if you kill somebody then we kill you . We talked about all of the problems of retributivism. We"re not going to play on these ^ since some retributivists already reject its being used for capital punishment.