ONLINE FIRST
published on November 15, 2019
Jill Hernandez
https://doi.org/10.5840/socphiltoday2019111467
Transmuted Goods and the Legacy of the Atrocity Paradigm
This paper responds to a recent challenge posed to Claudia Card¡¯s atrocity paradigm by ¡°transmuted goods,¡± or, goods which positively transmute victims of atrocity in ways which are difficult for the paradigm to explain. Whereas the legacy of Card¡¯s atrocity paradigm will surely be its demand that we hold others culpable for allowing and perpetuating systems of harm which threaten our ability to flourish, this paper suggests a way for the paradigm to incorporate transmuted goods in a manner that strengthens the paradigm¡¯s overall goal of holding people responsible for perpetuating atrocious harms. To that end, I will articulate the systematicity and transmutativity conditions of an ¡°atrocity,¡± will demonstrate how ¡°transmuted goods¡± can threaten the transmutativity condition of an atrocity (and, so, the efficacy of the atrocity paradigm as an ethical theory), and will conclude by suggesting a potential integration of transmuted goods into the atrocity paradigm to salvage the transmutativity condition for the paradigm.