Gregg D. Caruso, "Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice" (Cambridge UP, 2021)
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What is the intuitive view of punishment and how is it introduced?
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Hello, thanks for joining us for this episode of New Books in Philosophy, which is part of the New Books Network. I'm Robert Talise, I'm Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. I host the program with Carrie Figder and Sarah Tyson. My guest today is Greg Caruso. Greg is professor of philosophy at SUNY Corning. Visiting fellow at the New College of the Humanities in London. and honorary professor of philosophy at Macquarie University. Greg also co-directs the Justice Without Retribution Network. at the University of Aberdeen School of Law. Gregg's research lies at the intersections of metaphysics, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, ethics, political and legal philosophy. His new book has just been published by Cambridge University Press.
It's titled Rejecting Retributivism: Free Will, Punishment, and Criminal Justice. According to an intuitive view, Those who commit crimes are justifiably subject to punishment, depending on the severity of the wrongdoing that constitutes the crime. Punishment can be severe. It can be incarceration, confinement, various forms of deprivation, and so on. The common thought is that in committing serious crimes, persons render themselves deserving of punishment by the state. Punishment is simply then a matter of giving offenders just their just desserts. Call this broad view retributivism. What if retributivism's underlying idea of dessert is fundamentally confused? What if persons lack the kind of free will that could make them deserving of punishment in the sense that retributivism requires?
This is the central question addressed in Greg Caruso's new book. After arguing against the idea that persons can be deserving of punishment in the retributivist sense, Caruso develops an alternative approach to criminal behavior. Now as usual there's a lot to talk about. But why don't we begin as we always do? with our guest. Hi Greg. Hi Rob. Thanks for having me. Oh, it's great to be talking to you. How are you today?
Good, very good.
I'm glad to hear that. Um so uh thanks for writing such a wonderful book. Um, you know, we usually start these discussions uh by uh asking the author uh to say a little bit about himself. So uh why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, Greg?
Yeah, so I um was born and raised on Long Island, um, in a small town named Malvern. Um I have five older brothers, and so I was the first really to pursue an academic life. Most of my brothers um you know, went into uh you know uh careers in real estate and uh building and development and carpentry. Um I went on to college at William Patterson University where actually we met. Um yeah we were we were college mates and uh I actually went to study jazz initially.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the intuitive view of punishment and how is it introduced?
0:00–12:03
2
How does Gregg Caruso define free will and what is hard incompatibilism?
12:03–27:06
3
Why does Caruso argue that retributivism fails as a justification for punishment?
27:06–47:00
4
What are the six distinct arguments Caruso uses to reject retributivism?
47:00–1:06:28
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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