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telishment

noun /ˈtɛlɪʃmənt/

  1. The act or institution of punishing the innocent for the sake of providing deterrence.

    uncountable

    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.

Where it comes from

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.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry telishment (CC BY-SA 4.0).

← telishtellurocracy →

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