Derek Parfit has recently defended the view that no one can ever deserve to
suffer. Were this view correct, its implications for the thorny problem of the justification of
punishment would be extraordinary: age-old debates between consequentialists and retributivists
would simply vanish, as punishment would only—and simply—be justifiable
along Benthamite utilitarian lines. I here suggest that Parfit’s vie

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• On the Matter of Suffering: Derek Parfit and the Possibility of Deserved Punishment