Is the retributive theory of punishment a tenable moral/philosophical position?
(Excluding any potential practical concerns, for the sake of argument.)
It seems a lot of people, especially those who are more socially liberal, tend to dislike or even are disgusted by the concept. They often espouse the idea that punishment should only, or almost entirely, be about preventing harmful people from doing harm to others.
I lean socially liberal myself, but I've never been able to agree with this. I think deterrence and rehabilitation are also important goals, but retribution is still a significant factor; within my own psychology at the very least.
I personally want to and like to see retribution meted out. To me, retribution is a necessary condition for justice. The notion of "desert" is deeply ingrained within me.
I can't shake away the tether to an intrinsic sense of "should-ness", so to speak. I think if (hypothetically) someone has, with 100% certainty, done some bad thing, some proportionate bad thing should be inflicted upon them in turn.
I know a lot (most? the vast majority?) of humans have obviously felt this way for millennia, but I'm wondering if this is just a subjective psychological desire which I should try to suppress for more objective/abstract philosophical reasons, or if it's reasonable to feel this way beyond the simple emotional, dopaminergic, and/or perhaps somewhat sadistic calculus of "it feels good to see people get their just deserts".
(Excluding any potential practical concerns, for the sake of argument.)
It seems a lot of people, especially those who are more socially liberal, tend to dislike or even are disgusted by the concept. They often espouse the idea that punishment should only, or almost entirely, be about preventing harmful people from doing harm to others.
I lean socially liberal myself, but I've never been able to agree with this. I think deterrence and rehabilitation are also important goals, but retribution is still a significant factor; within my own psychology at the very least.
I personally want to and like to see retribution meted out. To me, retribution is a necessary condition for justice. The notion of "desert" is deeply ingrained within me.
I can't shake away the tether to an intrinsic sense of "should-ness", so to speak. I think if (hypothetically) someone has, with 100% certainty, done some bad thing, some proportionate bad thing should be inflicted upon them in turn.
I know a lot (most? the vast majority?) of humans have obviously felt this way for millennia, but I'm wondering if this is just a subjective psychological desire which I should try to suppress for more objective/abstract philosophical reasons, or if it's reasonable to feel this way beyond the simple emotional, dopaminergic, and/or perhaps somewhat sadistic calculus of "it feels good to see people get their just deserts".
