The ideas of moral responsibility and retributive justice are at the heart of criminal justice and sentencing, as well as people's moral evaluations. In the case of van de Velde, people are presumably mad because they believe that the punishment was not proportional to the crime, the principle of retributive justice. A group of philosophers, whom I discuss in the essay below, however, believes that moral responsibility and retributive justice are indefensible and harmful ideas. They would say that, since van de Velde stopped offending, the criminal justice system worked. https://open.substack.com/pub/eclecticinquiries/p/against-moral-responsibility-and?r=4952v2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Thank you for your note and writing. I think you are quite right about what drives the anger against van de Velde, to me, it means that the anger should never directed to structures and systems rather than an individual. Further, van de Velde completed his sentence.
We are suspicious about retributive justice. I make an effort to be cautious when stepping out of my expertise, and in this case making these determinations is beyond my zone of comfort. I think these group makes a good point, the man was found, charged, tried, did time, was deemed to be releasable, was released, and has not reoffended (that we know of). So one could argue that it did work. Should there be any lingering consequences?
I will read the linked article. Thanks for sharing.
The ideas of moral responsibility and retributive justice are at the heart of criminal justice and sentencing, as well as people's moral evaluations. In the case of van de Velde, people are presumably mad because they believe that the punishment was not proportional to the crime, the principle of retributive justice. A group of philosophers, whom I discuss in the essay below, however, believes that moral responsibility and retributive justice are indefensible and harmful ideas. They would say that, since van de Velde stopped offending, the criminal justice system worked. https://open.substack.com/pub/eclecticinquiries/p/against-moral-responsibility-and?r=4952v2&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
Hi Ian,
Thank you for your note and writing. I think you are quite right about what drives the anger against van de Velde, to me, it means that the anger should never directed to structures and systems rather than an individual. Further, van de Velde completed his sentence.
We are suspicious about retributive justice. I make an effort to be cautious when stepping out of my expertise, and in this case making these determinations is beyond my zone of comfort. I think these group makes a good point, the man was found, charged, tried, did time, was deemed to be releasable, was released, and has not reoffended (that we know of). So one could argue that it did work. Should there be any lingering consequences?
I will read the linked article. Thanks for sharing.