Punishment: Some Questions Philosophers Ask

Abstract

Most of us — that is to say, most adult members of developed societies — would probably claim to have some idea of what punishment is. We might make good on this claim by being able to identify a few paradigmatic instances of punishment; by showing that we can distinguish things which are punishment from things which are not but which might, superficially, appear somewhat like it; or by giving a rudimentary account of the sorts of roles which punishment appears to play in our own societies. Understanding what punishment is, in this fairly minimal sense, need not involve having a philosophically adequate definition of punishment. It also need not involve anything that deserves the title of a philosophical theory of punishment. Still, one might wonder why one should need anything more than this fairly minimal understanding of punishment.