But to blame
does not mean that we set ourselves up as of finer clay; it
means only that we continue to use a weapon of great value
for the advancement of human welfare. A man always "could
have helped it" he could have if his inward aversion to the sin
had been strong enough; and it is precisely because blame tends
to make that aversion stronger in the sinner and in all who are
aware of it, that we must employ it. Reward and punishment are
the materialization of praise and blame and have the same uses.
We reward and punish men not because in some unanalyzable
sense they "deserve" it, but ultimately in order to foster noble and
heroic acts and deter men from crime. The giving of rewards for
good conduct has never been systematized (except for Carnegie
medals, school prizes, and a few other cases), and the practical
difficulties in the way are probably insuperable. Indeed, the natural
outward rewards of fame, position, increased salary, etc, would be
spur enough, if they could be made less capricious and more certain.
But to restrain its members from injury to one another is so necessary
to society, and so difficult, that elaborate systems of punishment have
been used since prehistoric times. To a consideration of the
contemporary problems concerning punishment we shall return
at a later stage in our study.
What is responsibility?
There is one plea which exempts a person from blame- when we say
he was not responsible.
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