ABSTRACT

Punishments and rewards are pervasive features of social life. We meet both almost everywhere. As parents, we must come to terms with both and seek to assess their proper role in the education and discipline of our children. As employers and employees, we must wrestle with their role in ordering productive relationships. Contract negotiations are unavoidably about both. What is a just wage for this job in contrast to that one? Are pay scales equitable? Under what conditions should an employer have the right to discipline an employee? What kinds of disciplinary responses are justified under what conditions and for what reasons? And so on. In our social lives, we find ourselves wondering whether someone’s snub was a tit for tat, or what the neighbours up the street did to deserve the anger directed their way.