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Philosophical analysis of moral claims on wrongdoers, emphasizing proportionality and closure.
In the age of so-called ‘cancel culture’, we seem to know when to condemn but have less sense of when to stop. I argue that wrongdoers themselves hold moral claims on others qua wrongdoer. I call these after-wrong duties: obligations of proportionality, non-duplication, reply, and closure. They rest on a simple thought: wrongdoers still possess moral standing in the aftermath of wrongdoing. I show that to sanction without regard for its stopping point is itself a moral failure. Justice demands limits even for those who are guilty.
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Paul‐Mikhail Catapang Podosky (2026) studied this question.
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