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Single Idea 20233

[filed under theme 22. Metaethics / C. The Good / 1. Goodness / i. Moral luck ]

Full Idea

With this infamous art of interpreting the concept of punishment, people have robbed of its innocence the whole, pure contingency of events.

Gist of Idea

Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes

Source

Friedrich Nietzsche (Dawn (Daybreak) [1881], 013)

Book Ref

Nietzsche,Friedrich: 'Dawn (Daybreak) (v 5)', ed/tr. Smith, Brittain [Stanford 2011], p.14


A Reaction

What a wonderfully subtle observation about moral luck! That whole problem is driven by the issue of whether the agent should be punished. When a chain of errors leads to disaster, we may see many innocent people doing a collective evil.

Related Idea

Idea 20232 Get rid of the idea of punishment! It is a noxious weed! [Nietzsche]


The 9 ideas with the same theme [problem of unexpected moral outcomes]:

Attempted murder is like real murder, but we should respect the luck which avoided total ruin [Plato]
Sooner a good decision going wrong, than a bad one turning out for the good [Epicurus]
A carelessly thrown brick is condemned much more if it hits someone [Smith,A, by Harman]
Punishment has distorted the pure innocence of the contingency of outcomes [Nietzsche]
A bad result distorts one's judgement about the virtue of what one has done [Nietzsche]
If all that matters in morality is motive and intention, that makes moral luck irrelevant [Williams,B]
Moral luck can arise in character, preconditions, actual circumstances, and outcome [Nagel]
We can't criticise people because of unforeseeable consequences [Graham]
Moral luck means our praise and blame may exceed our control or awareness [Zagzebski]