Rethinking Punishment

Rejecting traditional alternatives, Leo Zaibert offers an original and refreshing approach to the age-old problem of the justification of punishment.

Leo Zaibert (Author)

9781316645390, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 April 2018

274 pages
22.9 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm, 0.41 kg

'Leo Zaibert's Rethinking Punishment … is a rigorous, subtle, and penetrating analysis of the issues surrounding punishment; and it is a profoundly philosophical work that exhibits careful and well-informed philosophical argument at its best … By my lights it is the most impressive and sophisticated and appealing defense of retributivism yet developed.' Bruce N. Waller, Journal of Moral Philosophy

The age-old debate about what constitutes just punishment has become deadlocked. Retributivists continue to privilege desert over all else, and consequentialists continue to privilege punishment's expected positive consequences, such as deterrence or rehabilitation, over all else. In this important intervention into the debate, Leo Zaibert argues that despite some obvious differences, these traditional positions are structurally very similar, and that the deadlock between them stems from the fact they both oversimplify the problem of punishment. Proponents of these positions pay insufficient attention to the conflicts of values that punishment, even when justified, generates. Mobilizing recent developments in moral philosophy, Zaibert offers a properly pluralistic justification of punishment that is necessarily more complex than its traditional counterparts. An understanding of this complexity should promote a more cautious approach to inflicting punishment on individual wrongdoers and to developing punitive policies and institutions.

1. Punishment as a Problem: I. Punishment, Theodicies, and Meaning
II. The Axiological and the Deontic
III. Monism and Pluralism
IV. Conflicts, Remainders, and Forgiveness
V. Overview
2. Prolegomena to any Future Axiology: I. Ideal Utilitarianism, Desert, and the Richness of the Moral Universe
II. Organic Wholes and the Sounds of Justice
III. Variance and its Discontents
IV. Conclusion
3. The Persistence of Consequentialism: I. Giving Desert its Due
II. The Pieties of Impunity
III. The Avoidance of Suffering and Sour Grapes
IV. Conclusion
4. The Gerrymandering Gambit: Retributivism in the Budget Room: I. Holistic Retributivism and Sharing Stages
II. Emotions, Moral Luck, and Arrogance
III. Cutting Oneself Off from the Human Condition
IV. Punishment, Revenge, and the Pale Cast of Thought
V. Talking to Oneself
VI. Conclusion
5. Communication, Forgiveness, and Topography: I. The Limits of Communication
II. Games People Play
III. A Variety of Skepticisms
IV. Tales from Topographic Oceans
V. Conclusion
6. The Allure of the Ledger: Better Than a Dog Anyhow: I. Moral Luck and Moral Mathematics
II. The Critique of the Morality System
III. Punishment, the Peculiar Institution
IV. Pluralism, the Value of Forgiveness, and the Messiness of the World
V. Conclusion
7. The Right Kind of Complexity: I. Retributivism and Magical Thinking
II. Utilitarianism, Forgiveness, and Moral Reasons
III. Micro-Managing Life
IV. From Unconditional Forgiveness to Unconditional Punishment
V. Conclusion
8. The Jugglery of Circumstances: Dirty Hands and Impossible Stories: I. Punishing Innocence
II. Moral Taints: From Aulis to Theresienstadt
III. Moral Brilliance and Moral Imagination
IV. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Criminal law & procedure [LNF], Criminology: legal aspects [LAR], Jurisprudence & philosophy of law [LAB], Offenders [JKVQ], Social & political philosophy [HPS]