THE PASSIONS OF PUNISHMENT

I criticize an increasingly popular set of arguments for the justifiability of punishment. Some philosophers try to justify punishment by appealing to what Peter Strawson calls the reactive attitudes – emotions like resentment, indignation, remorse and guilt. These arguments fail. The view that these emotions commit us to punishment rests on unsophisticated views of punishment and of these emotions and their associated behaviors. I offer more sophisticated accounts of punishment, of these emotions and of their associated behaviors that are consistent with Abolitionism, the view that punishment is unjustified.     

ON “NOT THREE GODS”—AGAIN: CAN A PRIMARY‐SECONDARY SUBSTANCE READING OF OUSIA AND HYPOSTASIS AVOID TRITHEISM?

This article is both historical and constructive. The historical side addresses the question of whether a consistent line of analogy for the Trinity can be found among the Cappadocians. I answer in the affirmative, arguing that an analogy of primary-secondary substance for the one ousia and three hypostases of the Godhead is present in Basil and the two Gregories. The constructive side concerns the question raised by modern critics over whether Primary-Secondary Substance Trinitarianism (PST) can ultimately avoid tritheism. I will consider objections to this analogy in an effort to show that PST, when taking its cues from the Cappadocians, can successfully sustain its claim to monotheism.