The Quintonian Way With Words

--- by JLS
for the GC

--- An amusing comparison of Bradley with Quinton -- vis a vis Hart, at

L. Zaibert in Law and Philosophy (2006) at:

http://minerva.union.edu/zaibertl/zaibert%20punishment%20and%20revenge.pdf

"Bradley's manoeuvre is to say

that when punishment is NOT

retributively justified, as a matter of

definition, it is not punishment,

but an immorality. Protagoras's manoevure

is to say that when punishment is

not consequentially justified it is not

punishment, but 'mindless vengeance'. Both

manoevures are mere stipulations, and they

remind us of the sort of Quintonian

defense [On punishment, Analysis, 1954, vol. 14] against the charge that utilitarianism

could justify punishing the innocent, and

which H. L. A. Hart aptly dubbed 'the definitional

stop'(Punishment and responsibility, 1968, p. 1)".