Pojman's View on Merit According Essay

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A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education and social ties, and needs. No religious basis is necessary."

Einstein, 1954 [emphasis supplied]

Alternate Suggested Application of Pojman's Thesis

From many ethical perspectives, the implications of Pojman's analysis with respect to punishment (i.e. "just deserts"), is more problematic than his suggestions about rewarding positive human behavior at the other end of the spectrum. In fact, there is no reason that Pojman's entire thesis need be discarded just to purify it of its most problematic implications. For example, the following description of a human community would resolve many of the most serious ethical criticisms of Pojman's approach while still allowing some of his more beneficial aspects of his merit-and-just deserts-based analysis: The envisioned society would de-emphasize penal law to the extent it is designed for the purpose of retributive punishment of wrongdoers. On the other hand, it would sanction punitive confinement as necessary to protect potential victims and it would sanction any form of compensatory mechanisms and obligations on wrongdoers to make their victims whole.

There would appear to be much more merit, as it were, to Pojman's argument with respect to the justification of promoting correspondence between the benefit and value contributed by individuals to society in some general sense, at least.

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In principle, there is nothing inherently offensive about imposing some higher levels of taxes on income levels in the private sector to fund compensation of highly "productive" in the sense referenced by Pojman, such as to pay firefighters, police officers, and teachers a more competitive wage. That is also a moderate "socialist" position that allows every individual the personal autonomy to pursue capitalist ventures for profit while imposing some limit on the disparate earning level between those who devote themselves to more selfish goals and those who choose to contribute more to the community.

Under that approach, one could apply the general principles of merit-for-contribution suggested by Pojman. A society could operate under the assumption that everyone's lot in life is at least somewhat predetermined by nature and circumstances and therefore punish only for protection of the innocent and compensation for the aggrieved. Meanwhile, more "selfish" lifestyles would be permitted but, in essence, taxed appropriately to reward teachers and emergency service personnel and others who choose to commit themselves to less selfish lives......

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