Christopher W. Morris

Jennifer Collins

Main Thesis:

l Morris Presents a social contract theory of punishment

l People who intentionally violate the social contract by engaging in wrongdoing lose some moral standing and hence, forfeit some of their moral rights.

l Those who murder forfeit their right to life, so capital punishment cannot be said to violate it.

What is punishment?

l Punishment is the intentional imposition of some pain, unpleasantness, or deprivation for an offense committed by a culprit

l It may be imposed so as to teach the offender a lesson, to deter others from similar acts, or to exact retribution

l Punishments are effective deterrents, or appropriate means of retribution for offenses, but they must be morally justified if they are to inflicted.

What is Justice?

· Justice is a moral virtue that is concerned with what individuals are owed, to what they may claim, to what they have a right.

· Punishment has a direct relationship to justice in that punishment will not be unjust when wrongdoers lose the moral rights that would otherwise protect them against harm or loss

· Justice is the basis of punishment

· Justice consists of principles, rules, and norms that ideally serve to advance the interests and aims of all in certain situations.

· Justice is a “social contract”

What does Justice Require? Why Be Just?

l Justice requires that everyone comply, and will secure everyone’s advantage. There is a mutual benefit.

l We have reason to be just because if we have reason to accept certain principles of conduct, then we have reason to comply with them, provided that the conditions under which we accepted the principles remain unchanged

l We need to be just because in the absence of certain conditions there is no reason to act justly; this is known as “the doctrine of the circumstances of justice.”

Moral Standing

· a moral object is something that is an object of moral consideration.

· a direct moral object is something that to which or whom that consideration is paid or owed

· An indirect moral object is something about or concerning which moral consideration is paid.

· To have moral standing is to be owed moral consideration

· People are direct moral objects. Protected natural sites, national monuments, significant works of art might be examples of indirect moral objects.

· In contrast, a moral subject is something that has moral duties or may be expected to give moral consideration to direct moral objects. Adult humans are moral subjects where as animals and infants are not.

Circumstances of justice

· in normal circumstances adult humans have moral obligations and are owed moral considerations.

· Contractarian moral theory will imply that in the circumstances of justice all humans capable and willing to impose constraints on their behavior toward others have full moral standing.

Wrongdoing and loss of moral standing

l Morris argues that wrongdoers lose some of their rights and moral standing. Some wrongdoers lose all of their rights and retain at most partial moral standing.

l Forfeiture Theory- part of(but only part) of the justification for punishment rests in the fact that wrongdoers lack certain rights, the presence of which normally suffice to block the appropriate punishment

l According to contractarian tradition, they have built in them provisions for penalties in the event of violation.Ex: A club or organization is built for benefit of it’s members, it will have rules which will benefit its members. If rules are broken, there will be sanctions to provide assurance that others will not take advantage of one’s cooperative behavior.

l Rules of morality have built into them penalties, which may be applied whenever individuals act wrongly, or in violation of these rules.

l The normal rights of individuals are suspended whenever they violate the constraints of justice.

The Death Penalty

l Contract killers, war criminals, tyrants, and certain terrorists lack moral standing on contractarian account of justice

l They show by their conduct that they are unwilling to abide by constraints of justice, so it is not wrong to execute them because they lack full moral standing and thus protection of justice.

l We have no moral obligation of justice to people who place themselves outside the constraints of justice

l If we intentionally take the life of another or interfere with liberty, we must justify our actions with reference to justice, given their rights to life and liberty

l We do not have to give standard moral justifications for executing wrongdoers because killing killing them would neither be a violation nor an overriding of their moral rights to life or liberty. Rather, they no longer have, or never had, such moral rights.

Conclusion

l Punishment is justified in part because wrongdoers lose their moral rights that would otherwise stand in the way of their being harmed in the manner that we do when we punish them. Moral standing is lost, and moral rights are to some degree forfeited, by wrongdoers.