Evidence receipt / belief
Published · transcript-backedPeter Singer: belief
7 Jun 2023 Conversations with Tyler Peter Singer on Utilitarianism, Influence, and Controversial Ideas
“I think we want to punish people who do great evil as a way of indicating that it’s got an expressivist function, that this was a terrible thing that they did.”
Source trail
Everything needed to verify it.
- Speaker
- Peter Singer
- Attribution
- Verified speaker
- Claim type
- belief
- Recorded
- 7 Jun 2023
- Publisher
- Conversations with Tyler
Transcript context
…On your book about your grandfather, your ancestors — at the very last page of the book, you say that justice was done to the Nazi leaders, and I fully agree. But for a pure utilitarian, what does that mean? I think we want to punish people who do great evil as a way of indicating that it’s got an expressivist function, that this was a terrible thing that they did. This is an ultimate condemnation that people should learn from, be educated from. And also a deterrent function if other people think that they’re going to get away with that. In terms of just downright justice, flat-out right and wrong, I consider myself a two-thirds utilitarian, but not completely. You’re more than two-thirds. Can I pull you down to two-thirds and bring in justice for these extreme cases, where you can just point and say, “That was wrong”?…
Stored transcript either side of the excerpt. The highlighted words are the published quote; the surrounding text is unedited source, never generated.