reward + punishment

• there are two approaches to crime + socially deviant behaviour:

  1. crime is a mental condition; an illness that can be treated
  2. crime is deliberately anti-social behaviour; it should be punished
• • hard determinists would argue that crime is a mental condition + should not be punished
  • libertarians would argue that crime is a deliberately anti-social behaviour + should be punished
• hard determinism on moral responsibility theory for reward + punishment:

  • if determinism is true, then there can be no freedom of the kind required for moral responsibility
  • punishment/reward would be pointless, because all such events are determined + unavoidable
  • if our human behaviour is determined, then so is our system of punishment/rewards - they are simply consequences we have built into the system
• B.F. Skinner: believed that his work would lead to a reform of all the practices of praise + blame, reward + punishment

  • punishing people for antisocial behaviour is not really effective - once the punishment is over, they will eventually go back to their original behaviour; punishment makes people resentful + aggressive
  • instead, we should make sweeping changes to our traditional practices in order to keep society safe
• libertarian criticism of the hard determinist approach

  • these ideas are totally incoherent; we might as well sit back + do nothing, because doing nothing can make no difference to what is determined
  • response to Skinner: his recommendations about punishment are an acknowledgment that people really do have the freedom to do otherwise
• libertarianism on moral responsibility theory for reward + punishment:

  • must hold people responsible for their actions: praise, blame, reward + punishment are part of the libertarian strategy for leading people to be morally responsible
  • seeing people as a product of social + genetic forces is to treat people as objects without dignity
  • the law in the UK acknowledges diminished responsibility e.g. for the mentally unstable
• Kant (libertarianism thinker)

  • ‘ought implies can’ - we feel the moral compulsion concerning what we ‘ought’ to do, which strongly suggests that we are free to do it
  • our freedom is clear from the fact we are able to override that compulsion + do otherwise
  • at the same time, we can feel guilt + remorse when we fail to do what we ought
  • these feelings are strongly indicative of moral freedom
• Kant on the libertarian account of punishment as retribution

  • we can be free internally to follow the moral law + externally by being able to pursue our own ends
  • the proper aim of punishment = retribution: allows the criminal to become a rational person, responsible for their actions
  • it cannot be deterrence, because that uses the criminal as a means to an end; it cannot be rehabilitation, because that assumes the criminal is like an animal - incapable of reason
• weakness of libertarian approach:

  • if determinism is true, then libertarianism itself is merely another kind of determined response to moral issues
• compatibilism on moral responsibility theory for reward + punishment:

  • ‘could I have done otherwise?’ ‘yes, if I had desired to do otherwise’
  • compatibilists see themselves as morally responsible because:
  • their moral choices are not the results of physical restraints or coercive threats
  • they wanted/desired to act as they did despite being aware of alternative actions
• Hume (compatibilist key thinker):

  • people are blameworthy only where their choices come from their character
  • utilitarian approach to punishment: function is to improve society; punishment should be a part of social engineering through which fear of punishment helps to repress anti-social behaviour
  • the ultimate reward of heaven + ultimate punishment of hell are senseless, because they are totally disproportionate either to human good/evil
• problems with the compatibilist approach:

  • ‘just deserts’ = theory of punishment that sentencing should be proportionate to the severity of the crime
  • compatibilism + determinism both lean towards the therapeutic model, but there is a strong common sense feeling among libertarians + in the thinking of the ordinary person that the punishment should fit the crime
  • strong suspicion that compatibilism is incoherent: Hume himself admitted that causal determinism may be true