Honderich: “Kant’s idea was that punishing people had nothing whatever to do with good social effects in the future, less crime and fewer victims in a society. Rather, according to his Retribution Theory, punishment was justified and obligatory because it was deserved. Neither he nor Retributivists after him slowed down enough… to ask what it means to say that some deserves something. That wasn’t clear at all.”

Honderich: “At the bottom of philosophy are things under-described as commitments. They are better described as grips that the world gets on us, early.”

Does this mean that it is blameworthy to have ‘commitments’ that have not been thoroughly analysed? Also, if one is not aware of such ‘commitments’ does it hinder the ability to ‘do’ philosophy properly?