Marxism and Retribution

Bibliographic Data

ID23179327
AuthorsJeffrie G Murphy (corresponding author)
Year2017
Pages57-84
Publication date2017-07-05
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueCorrectional Ethics (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.4324/9781315095387-4
OpenAlexW4300501230
ISBN9781315095387
LanguageEN
Citations received11

Punishment in general has been defended as a means either of ameliorating or of intimidating. Now what right have you to punish me for the amelioration or intimidation of others? And besides there is history—there is such a thing as statistics—which prove with the most complete evidence that since Cain the world has been neither intimidated nor ameliorated by punishment Quite the contrary. From the point of view of abstract right, there is only one theory of punishment which recognizes human dignity in the abstract, and that is the theory of Kant, especially in the more rigid formula given to it by Hegel. Hegel says: “ Punishment is the right of the criminal. It is an act of his own will. The violation of right has been proclaimed by the criminal as his own right. His crime is the negation of right. Punishment is the negation of this negation, and consequently an affirmation of right, solicited and forced upon the criminal by himself .”

Economic Justice · Political science · Retributive justice · Law · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Political Philosophy and Ethics · War, Ethics, and Justification

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