Citation

McTaggart JE. Int. J. Ethics (1890) 1896; 6(4): 479-502.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1896, University of Chicago Press)

DOI

10.2307/2375419

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We may define punishment as the infliction of pain on a person because he has done wrong. That it must be painful, and that it must be inflicted on a person who has done, or is thought to have done,wrong, will be generally admitted, But we must also remember that it is essential that it should be inflicted because of the wrong-doing. In the little books written by the authors who educated our parents, the boy who went out without his mother's leave was struck by lightning. This cannot,unless theology is introduced,be considered as a punishment. For the lightning would have struck with equal readiness any boy in the same spot, although provided with the most ample parental authority. And the little books written by the moralists who are anxious to educate our children, although less amusing than their predecessors,are often not more accurate. They delight in talking of the rewards and punishments which Nature herself distributes among us. But Nature,though she often destroys,never punishes. For the moral value of an action makes no difference to her.

Punishment,then,is pain,and to inflict pain on any person obviously needs a justification....