Uri Eran

I am a philosopher working on ethics and moral psychology, with particular interests in Kant’s practical philosophy and its relevance for contemporary philosophy of emotion and environmental ethics.

 

Abstract: This project develops and defends a Kantian approach to the relationship between punishment and revenge. On this approach, punishment and revenge are similar in that both inflict harm in response to wrongful acts. However, revenge is usually morally worse because it is motivated by what Kant calls Schadenfreude, a kind of hatred that consists in desiring to harm another or to take pleasure in that harm, because this other person had wronged me. Legal punishment, by contrast, is usually motivated by considerations of justice, i.e., by the desire that the target be harmed because he had wronged someone.