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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
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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

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