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The Puzzle About Authority and Punishment

 
 
Reply Wed 16 Dec, 2015 12:22 am
Consider the following claims:
1.) An act of legal punishment is morally justified only if the government has the moral authority to make and enforce the applicable law.
2.) If the government has the moral authority to make and enforce a particular law, then those to whom the law is addressed have a moral obligation to obey it.
3.) No one ever has a moral obligation to obey the law.
4.) No act of legal punishment is ever morally justified.*
5.) Some acts of legal punishment are morally justified.*

Claims 4 and 5 cannot both be true. Yet, which one is false? So on one hand, claim 5 certainly seems to be true. Our government is not to be orally faulted for punishing at least some of those currently in prison. On the other hand, claim 4 follows from the first three premises. Its true if the first three are, and they certainly seem to be true.

What solution/s might we be able to develop? Especially from theories of philosophers such as Bentham, Rawls, Kant, Hampton, ven dan Haag, Nathanson, etc.
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neologist
 
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Reply Wed 16 Dec, 2015 01:20 am
@mnciffone,
Governments have (or should have) authority to maintain order, create laws, and enforce laws. The conundrum arises when you attempt to define morality. Does it relate to individual standards? Or standards of the majority? Many examples of recent history can be cited where the actions of individuals proved of greater moral worth than those of their governing agencies.

In your example, if the standards of morality are defined only by the government, then all legal punishments are morally justified, (2) is always true, (3), (4), and (5) are all false, and anyone living under such a government should get out of town fast.
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