Punishment and Moral Obligation: A Seminar
Professor Lloyd Steffen (Lehigh University – USA)
Date: October, 15 to 19/2018
Time: 14pm 17:30pm
Local: Room 206 / IFISP
⇒ Subscription: goat.ufpel@gmail.com
Course Description and Objective: This week-long seminar examines punishment and moral obligation. Questions pertaining to the meaning of moral obligation will focus on why and how people should be held accountable for their actions, particularly if actions harm others, and how obligations factor into questions about human rights. Also at issue are questions about what we owe one another, how we show respect for one another, the limits and extent of responsibility, and how moral obligations extend into and are reflected in law. Attention will be given to utilitarian and deontological theories of retributive punishment, as well as a moral education theory of punishment, the role of rehabilitation, restorative justice and a natural law based theory of “just punishment. Among issues to be considered will be reactive attitudes (Strawson), how punishment derives from personal relationships and intersubjective of “second person” (Darwall) obligations, and how attitudes toward punishment are affected by both reason and emotions, which may not be all that different. The role of such matters as anger, disgust, empathy, gratitude, resentment, happiness, guilt, blame and forgiveness will be examined.
• TEXTS
1. Lloyd Steffen. “Forgiveness as Relatedness: On Justice…” – Link
2. Stephen Darwall. “Empathy, Sympathy, Care” – Link
3. Walter Berns. “The Morality of Anger” – Link
4. Charles V. Blatz. “Reason, Peace, Transitional Justice, and Punishment” – Link
5. John Braithwaite. “The fundamentals of restorative justice” – Link
6. Didier Fassin. “On Resentment and Ressentiment The Politics and Ethics of Moral Emotions” – Link
7. Erin I. Kelly. “Criminal Justice without Retribution” – Link
8. Clare McGlynn. “Feminism, Rape and the Search for Justice” – Link
9. Herbert Morris. “Persons and Punishment” – Link
10. Arthur Ripstein. “Responses to Humiliation” – Link
11. Richard Wasserstrom. “Punishment vs. Rehabilitation.” – Link
12. John Wilson. “The Justification of Punishment.” – Link
* Organizer
Evandro Barbosa
Federal University of Pelotas
* Financial Support:
Fulbright
Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil