Why We Punish

"Throughout the greater part of human history punishment was not imposed because one held the wrongdoer responsible for his deed, thus not on the presupposition that only the guilty one should be punished: rather, as parents still punish their children, from anger at some harm or injury, vented on the one who caused it--but this anger is held in check and modified by the idea that every injury has its equivalent and can actually be paid back, even if only through the pain of the culprit. And whence did this primeval, deeply rooted, perhaps by now ineradicable idea draw its power--this idea of an equivalence between injury and pain? ... in the contractual relationship between creditor and debtor, which is as old as the idea of 'legal subjects' and in turn points back to the fundamental forms of buying, selling, barter, trade, and traffic."    
- Nietzsche, On the Geneaology of Morals

Why do we punish? What justifies the inflection of pain and suffering? In this course, we shall consider both the philosophical issue of whether it is moral to punish at all, as well as competing theories as to why we punish. But we shall also turn to numerous practical issues:

• What actions merit punishment? For example, should someone be legally punished for using marijuana if they do not harm others? for committing adultery?

• Who should be punished? For example, should we punish those who are insane? drug addicts? juveniles who had a rotten social background? someone who breaks the law but was entrapped?

• How much punishment is appropriate? For example, should we punish those who agree to plea guilty less severely than those who insist on their innocence? Is capital punishment ever appropriate? If, all else equal--including the wrong committed--one subject to a punishment experiences significantly more suffering than another, have we failed to punish equally? 

  These problems will be our focal point for considering major concepts at the intersection of moral, legal, and political philosophy: authority, anarchy, justice, wrongdoing, and the surprisingly capitalistic notion of punishment-as-payment. We draw on a variety of sources: classic texts on punishment; contemporary works in philosophy, psychology, political theory, and law; court decisions; and films/documentaries.