Single Idea 20233

[catalogued under 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 Reference

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]