Abstract
Jean Hampton’s work first came to my attention in 1984, when the summer issue of Philosophy & Public Affairs appeared in my mailbox. Hampton’s essay in that issue, “The Moral Education Theory of Punishment,” did not persuade me—or many others, I suspect—that “punishment should not be justified as a deserved evil, but rather as an attempt, by someone who cares, to improve a wayward person” (Hampton 1984, 237). The essay did persuade me, though, that moral education is a plausible aim of punishment, even if it is not the “full and complete justification” Hampton claimed it to be (Hampton 1984, 209). It also persuaded me that I would do well to keep an eye out for further work by this gifted philosopher.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
Spring 2011
Publisher Statement
Copyright © 2011, American Philosophical Association. This article first appeared in APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Law: 10:2 (2011), 6-11.
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Recommended Citation
Dagger, Richard. "Jean Hampton’s Theory of Punishment: A Critical Appreciation." APA Newsletter on Philosophy and Law 10, no. 2 (Spring 2011): 6-11.