telishment

telishment

English

Etymology

Coined by John Rawls in his 1955 paper “Two Concepts of Rules”. Probably a portmanteau of the Ancient Greek τέλος (télos, “result; end; loosely, the greater good”) and the English (pun)ishment. Compare telish.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈtɛlɪʃmənt/

Noun

telishment (usually uncountable, plural telishments)

1. (consequentialism) The act or institution of punishing the innocent for the sake of providing deterrence.
   • 1955, John Rawls, “Two Concepts of Rules” in The Philosophical Review LXIV, № 1, page 11:

     Try to imagine, then, an institution (which we may call “telishment”) which is such that the officials set up by it have authority to arrange a trial for the condemnation of an innocent man whenever they are of the opinion that doing so would be in the best interests of society.

   • 1961, John Hospers, Human Conduct: An Introduction to the Problems of Ethics‎, page 457:

     And I would say the same about punishments — not telishments, but punishments — in which the penalty is far too severe.

Further reading

• telishment on Wikipedia.Wikipedia