Donelson, Raff: Pragmatism and Punishment

In Pragmatism Revisited. Cambridge University Press. pp. 138 - 150. forthcomingThis paper demonstrates that pragmatism provides a valuable framework for addressing three critical issues surrounding punishment: its definition, the debates over its institutional forms, and the conceptualization of mass incarceration. First, punishment should be defined through practical criteria, such as ensuring that the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution is interpreted in a just fashion. Second,