Responding to Wrongdoing: Comments on Christopher Bennett's The Apology Ritual

I present here three main difficulties for Bennett's account. First, it seems that retributivism is in a worse position if we admit (as Bennett does) that that for which we are morally responsible, and blameable, is to some extent subject to luck. Second, our moral practices include reactions to wrongdoing in which no vindictive element seems to be present, and we still regard them as appropriate and often admirable. Finally, there are important differences between blame and punishment that make problematic the aim of understanding and justifying legal punishment as a mere projection of blame.