Intending to benefit from wrongdoing

Robert E Goodin and Avia Pasternak
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Robert E Goodin: Australian National University, Australia
Avia Pasternak: University College London, UK

Politics, Philosophy & Economics, 2016, vol. 15, issue 3, 280-297

Abstract: Some believe that the mere beneficiaries of wrongdoing of others ought to disgorge their tainted benefits. Others deny that claim. Both sides of this debate concentrate on unavoidable beneficiaries of the wrongdoing of others, who are presumed themselves to be innocent by virtue of the fact they have neither contributed to the wrong nor could they have avoided receiving the benefit. But as we show, this presumption is mistaken for unavoidable beneficiaries who intend in certain ways to benefit from wrongdoing, and who have therefore done something wrong in forming and acting on such an intention.

Keywords: complicity; historical wrongdoing; innocent beneficiaries; intentional states; wrongful benefits (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:pophec:v:15:y:2016:i:3:p:280-297

DOI: 10.1177/1470594X16653624

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