 Bertrand Russell Quotes 366 |
I conclude that free will is not essential to any rational ethic, but only to the vindictive ethic that justifies hell and holds that “sin” should be punished regardless of any good that punishment may do. I conclude also that “sin”, except in the sense of conduct towards which the agent, or the community, feels an emotion of disapproval, is a mistaken concept, calculated to promote needless cruelty and vindictiveness when it is others that are thought to sin, and a morbid self-abasement when it is ourselves whom we condemn.
Source: Bertrand Russell: Bertrand Russell: Human Society in Ethics and Politics, (1954), chapter 7：sin
More info.:https://russell-j.com/cool/47T-0713.htm
* a brief comment: original text in Japanese, translated with Google translator
That the idea that it is better to inflict "retributive" punishment on those who commit crimes because all but those in a state of insanity have "free will" is wrong. In other words, immediately preceding this quote, Russell argues that
"a homicidal lunatic would not be deterred from murder even if he were certain to be hanged for it, and therefore it is useless to hang him. But sane people, when they commit a murder, usually do so in the hope of escaping detection, and it is this fact that makes it worth while to punish them when they are detected. Murder is punished, not because it is a sin and it is good that sinners should suffer, but because the community wishes to prevent it, and fear of punishment causes most people to abstain from it. This is completely compatible with the deterministic hypothesis, and completely incompatible with the hypothesis of free will.".