Justification of Punishment! :: Philosophy Philosophical Essays

Justification of PunishmentABSTRACT two functionals and the deontologists are of the opinion that penalty is justifiable, but according to the utilitarian clean-living thinkers, penalty laughingstock be justified solely by its consequences, maculation the deontologists believe that penalty is justifiable purely on justificative ground. D. D. Raphael is shew to reconcile both views. jibe to him, a punishment is justified when it is both pulmonary tuberculosisful and deserved. Maclagan, on the other hand, denies it to be justifiable in the gumption that it is non right to punish an offender. I claim that punishment is not justifiable but not in the sense in which it is claimed by Maclagan. The aim of this paper is to prove the absurdity of the enquiry as to whether punishment can be justified. Difference results from differing interpretations of the term justification. In its traditional meaning, justification can hardly be distinguished from evaluation. In this sense, to justify an correspond is to say that it is good or right. I differ from the traditional use and insist that no portrayal or conduct can be justified. Infliction of punishment is a human conduct and as much(prenominal) it is absurd to ask for its justification. I hold the view that to justify is to accept reason, and it is only a statement or an assertion behind which we can put forth reason. Infliction of pain is an act behind which the operator may have purpose or intention but not reason. So, it is not punishment, but rather statements concerning punishment that we can justify. Regarding the justification of punishment philosophers are not of the same opinion. According to the utilitarian moral thinkers punishment can be justified solely by its consequences. That is to say, according to the utilitarian account of punishment A ought to be punished means that A has done an act harmful to people and it needs to be prevented by punishment or the threat of it. So, it will be usefu l to punish A. Deontologists like Mabbott, Ewing and Hawkins, on the other hand, believe that punishment is justifiable purely on retributive grounds. That is to say, according to them, only the past fact that a man has affiliated a crime is sufficient enough to justify the punishment inflicted on him. But D.D. Raphael is found to reconcile between the two opposite views. According to him, a punishment is justified when it is both useful and deserved.