That’s what I thought, until I tried talking to people about how justice could be improved. Some people really do take punishment of criminals as terminal. There are some in this very thread.
I assign greater preferences for universes in which those who make certain actions experience outcomes lower in their preferences than they would have if they had not committed those acts, all else being equal. This roughly translates into treating punishment for certain things as a terminal value as well as an instrumental one.
This position does not strike me as one particularly out of accord with reasonable human values.
I’ve since improved my metaethics to acknoledge that I want punishment for criminals, but it is a rather small want, vastly overpowered by social-good game theory considerations.
I assign greater preferences for universes in which those who make certain actions experience outcomes lower in their preferences than they would have if they had not committed those acts, all else being equal. This roughly translates into treating punishment for certain things as a terminal value as well as an instrumental one.
This position does not strike me as one particularly out of accord with reasonable human values.
I’ve since improved my metaethics to acknoledge that I want punishment for criminals, but it is a rather small want, vastly overpowered by social-good game theory considerations.