Thursday, August 15, 2019

On punishment and reform

In terms of culpability, we seem to assume any agent could have done otherwise. Without being able to do otherwise, we don't usually consider an agent culpable. That much we often assume. And, in this case the emphasis is on a hypothetical past action. In terms of correction, the emphasis is on punishment and the failure of adherence to a past possibility. But why think focusing on what could have been done is preferable as a corrective?