I think we're all missing the point when we say that this moral stigma doesn't do anything because it won't keep starving sailors from eating each other to survive. Enforcing the law against Dudley is not meant to deter the Bad Man from killing and eating his crew members. The Dudley ruling can be better understood as part of a larger project of inculcating values into society's citizenry. To analogize to child-rearing: parents who are trying to raise a child to be honest punish the child for lying. However, this does not mean that their ultimate goal is to instill a child with a fear of getting grounded. That would miss the mark. Parents punish bad behavior and reward good behavior to raise their kids to be people who believe in certain values, whether or not they yield social advantages.
Similarly, enforcing an absolute prohibition against killing reinforces messages transmitted by other means in society. If the law against killing is the stick; the carrot is, say, a high school student receiving an A on a paper about human dignity. Enforcing the law sends the message: “yes, we really do mean it when we say killing is wrong, no matter what the social station of the victim is, etc.”). The goal is not merely to deter the Bad Man, but to make sure people don't turn out as the Bad Man.
-- MichaelDreibelbis - 15 Apr 2009 |