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  1. Home
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  3. The Ethics of Social Punishment
  • Cited by 15
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2020
Print publication year:
2020
Online ISBN:
9781108870665
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108870665
Subjects:
Ethics, Philosophy, Political Philosophy
Information

Book description

How do we punish others socially, and should we do so? In her 2018 Descartes Lectures for Tilburg University, Linda Radzik explores the informal methods ordinary people use to enforce moral norms, such as telling people off, boycotting businesses, and publicly shaming wrongdoers on social media. Over three lectures, Radzik develops an account of what social punishment is, why it is sometimes permissible, and when it must be withheld. She argues that the proper aim of social punishment is to put moral pressure on wrongdoers to make amends. Yet the permissibility of applying such pressure turns on the tension between individual desert and social good, as well as the possession of an authority to punish. Responses from Christopher Bennett, George Sher and Glen Pettigrove challenge Radzik's account of social punishment while also offering alternative perspectives on the possible meanings of our responses to wrongdoing. Radzik replies in the closing essay.

Reviews

'The Ethics of Social Punishment uses the philosophy of punishment to bring some conceptual clarity to aspects of social life that have long gone unnoticed by moral philosophers. It shows us how we make use of the power to punish in everyday life, and tries to determine when we are justified in doing so. This book will be instructive for both moral and political philosophers as well as for any social scientists interested in the conceptual basis of informal social control.'

Jacob Abolafia - Tel Aviv University

‘Linda Radzik’s new book is truly excellent. It is resolute, inviting, very well written, and extremely timely.’

Leo Zaibert Source: Criminal Law and Philosophy

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