normative

Punishment preserves common knowledge of expectations

Punishment is not merely for rehabilitation or individual deterrence but to preserve common, mutual knowledge of what to expect — like yellow and red cards in soccer, which enable a valued pastime; even with a Madoff-syndrome cure we would keep the threat of punishment so that people with the syndrome behave themselves, and notably most psychopaths never commit a crime because they are deterred by penalties.

normativepending

Speaker

Dan Dennett

Evidence Quote

consider in this light most psychopaths never commit a crime why they're deterred by the penalties

Source

39 - Free Will RevisitedMaking Sense with Sam Harris
Created: 6/14/2026, 2:25:04 AM

My Notes

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