Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T11:52:54.749Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 6 - Getting Exactly What One Deserves

from Part II - An Alternative Model of Desert

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2021

Kevin Kinghorn
Kevin Kinghorn
Affiliation:
Asbury Theological Seminary, Kentucky
Get access

Summary

The best defense of the traditional 3-place model of desert is offered by Kristján Kristjánsson, who argues that our common concern－when making desert claims－is for an apportionment of overall virtue/viciousness to overall fortune. On his account, deserved treatments, or outcomes, as substitutable: one good/bad outcome serves as well as any other correspondingly good/bad outcome, in satisfying the demands of desert. And he references the idea of poetic justice in defending this conclusion. However, a closer look at the examples he offers, as well as my own examples from Chapter 4, shows my own model of desert to be more plausible. Rather than a concern for "cosmic justice," the core concern behind desert claims is for the shared acknowledgment of someones traits and actions, and how these have affected others within a community. Clues from our language support this conclusion, such as the phrase that a person has gotten "exactly what she deserves"－a phrase we reserve for those times when we think a person has unmistakably been faced with the truth about how she has impacted others.

Keywords

Kristjánssonpoetic justicesubstitutable outcomes
Type
Chapter
Information
The Nature of Desert Claims
Rethinking What it Means to Get One's Due
 , pp. 155 - 183
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×