Let’s Think Through Our Values First
by Glenn Loury
The Conversation
March 31st, 2009
It’s not — as Prof. Wilson suggests — that I want to avoid an objective discussion of policy and only bandy about my subjective views concerning values. Rather, it’s that I think the values discussion is a necessary condition for a defensible policy discourse. We have to argue over what we’re trying to achieve before we can enter into a debate about how to achieve it. The differences aired here between Wilson and Western about the nature and importance of the retributive aspect of punishment sharply illustrate the wisdom of my position. My view is also confirmed, I would maintain, by the debate which has simmered just beneath the surface of our exchanges over the importance of public safety: “Prison deters crime” may be correct as a statement of fact. But whether this much prison is justified by that much deterrence is, inescapably, a question about values. If Wilson thinks he has no value positions, or that his positions are self-evident and not in need of defense, then I believe him to be mistaken.
