What does Plato say about punishment?

What does Plato say about punishment?

Plato’s conception of punishment is clearly radically forward-looking: the criminal is to be punished for the good of the whole of society. It is impossible to change the past.

Why death penalty is not possible in Platos concept?

He is aversive to retributive punishment which is designed merely to make the criminal suffer as a kind of primitive compensation for his crime. Plato does not commit himself to the view that all forms of punishment benefits the criminal as he reasons that only just punishment has this effect.

What was Plato’s theory of law?

Plato’s emphasis on reason found its way into his definition of law. Law is reasoned thought (logismos ) embodied in the decrees of the state (Laws 644d). The Laws contains a detailed discussion of many branches of law and is an attempt at a formulation of a systematic code to govern the whole of social life.

What ethical theory is against capital punishment?

The second theory of ethics is Kantianism also called Deontology. Kantianism views capital punishment as being immoral.

How does it relate to Plato’s theory of idealism?

Platonic idealism usually refers to Plato’s theory of forms or doctrine of ideas. Plato believed that because knowledge is innate and not discovered through experience, we must somehow arrive at the truth through introspection and logical analysis, stripping away false ideas to reveal the truth.

What is Plato’s idealism on crime?

Plato also made various other arguments: that crime was the product of a faulty education, that the severity of punishment should be determined by the degree of culpability, that criminals are sick individuals who must be cured, and that if they cannot be cured they must be eliminated.

Which philosopher was against the death penalty?

Philosophic defenses of the death penalty, like that of Immanuel Kant, opposed reformers and others, who, like Beccaria, argued for abolition of capital punishment.

What was Plato’s theory on coming up with a just state on coming up with the best leader?

Plato proposes instead that states should be governed by philosophers and be a lover of wisdom, which is the meaning of the Greek word, philosophia. Leadership is a duty of philosopher kings who acquire the techniques and skills for the art of ruling.

Which theory of punishment is the most humanitarian?

‘ According to the Humanitarian theory, to punish a man because he deserves it, and as much as he deserves, is mere revenge, and, therefore, barbarous and immoral. It is maintained that the only legitimate motives for punishing are the desire to deter others by example or to mend the criminal.

How would a utilitarian feel about capital punishment?

More specifically, a utilitarian approach sees punishment by death as justified only if that amount of punishment for murder best promotes the total happiness, pleasure, or well-being of the society.

Who was the first philosopher to believe in the death penalty?

Plato in the Laws, and the two leading philosophers of the time, Kant and Hegel, the one before, the other after the French Revolution, advocated a strict retributive theory of punishment and came to the conclusion that the death penalty was even a duty.

Where does the philosophy of capital punishment come from?

Most modern philosophic attention to capital punishment emerged from penal reform proponents, as principled, moral evaluation of law and social practice, or amidst theories of the modern state and sovereignty.

How did Kant defend the use of capital punishment?

The key to Kant’s defense of capital punishment is “the principle of equality,” by which the proper, merited amount and kind of punishment is determined for crimes.

Who is the author of Plato’s the laws?

T.J. Saun ders, Plato: the Laws (Harmondsworth, 1970), translates the passage in such a way as to make the Athenian claim that one might cure criminals by granting them pleasures, but this seems to be a mistake.