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A Criticism Of Retributivism: Identifying The Unavoidable And Undesirable Consequences Of Accepting Of Not Accepting “Ought Implies Can”, Samantha Bloomfield Jan 2022

A Criticism Of Retributivism: Identifying The Unavoidable And Undesirable Consequences Of Accepting Of Not Accepting “Ought Implies Can”, Samantha Bloomfield

Scripps Senior Theses

Retributivism makes two claims: the guilty deserve to be punished in proportion to their culpability, and the innocent deserve not to be punished. Through a discussion of our ineliminable susceptibility to luck, our inability to avoid epistemic fallibility, and the implications of either accepting or not accepting Ought Implies Can, I aim to identify retributivism as an inept moral theory.