Matching Well-Being to Merit: The Example of Punishment

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Abstract

In this paper, I explore our common-sense thinking about the relation between moral value, moral merit, and well-being. Starting from Ross’s observation that welfarist axiologies ignore our intuitions about desert, I focus on axiologies that take moral merit and well-being to be independent determinants of value. I distinguish three ways in which these axiologies can be formulated, and I then consider their application to the issue of punishment. The objection that they recommend penalties in circumstances in which intuitively we would judge them to be unjustified is examined, and I suggest that it can be met by incorporating temporal information into the way in which value, well-being and moral merit are linked.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5-27
Number of pages23
JournalEthical Perspectives
Volume18
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2011

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Philosophy

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