Plato's Theory Of Punishment

Plato's theory of punishment is the subject of this paper. As Plato was seen as the representative of idealism, scholars often tend to overlook his theory of punishment. However, I believe that t Plato's thought of punishment was very important for his philosophy. To some extent the whole secret of his political education lies in his theory of punishment. Plato was not a professional penologist, so we must understand his thought of punishment from the point of view of his political strategy overall.The goal of Plato's political theory was to construct inter-subjective moral orders in the state. Retributivism, which was the main method to claim the inter-subjective moral order in Greek tradition, was vulnerable to be criticized by Sophists because of its inherent faults. So Plato changed his strategy of moral education. Instead of using retribution as the measure to maintain the inter-subjective moral order directly, Plato cultivated it by transforming the inter-subjective moral order into the subjective morality. In philosophy of law, Plato preferred reform to retribution not only because reform accords with his subjective moral philosophy but also because reform can promote the development of inter-subjective moral order indirectly by inhancing the agent's moral virtue. On the other hand, since the justice of retribution was firmly rooted in the public mentality at that time, Plato implicitly approved the measures of retribution in his theory of punishment. So there is a tension between reform and retribution in Plato's thought of punishment.The paper consists of five chapters. In chapter 1, the author claims that the way of justifying the punishment can be divided into two ways. One is based on intersubjective standard morality and the other is based upon subjective standard morality. Understanding these two different ways of justifying the punishment is helpful to apprehend the problems Plato is facing and his strategy to solve them.In chapter 2, the author explores the contexts of Plato's thought of punishment, namely the relation between Greek social values and punishment. Under the aggressive values from Homer, the function of punishment was to restore the victim's time , while under the cooperative values since Hesiod , the purpose of punishment was to maintain the inter-subjective moral orders by retribution. In Plato's time, Sophists had enlightened the subjectivity of humankind, but at the same time the inter-subjective morale orders was deeply in threat by the rationale of subjectivity they advocated. The compelling task Plato has faced was to refute Sophists so as to re-establish the inter-subjective moral order.In chapter 3, the author introduces Plato's moral theory and its impact upon his theory of punishment. On one hand Socrates' imperative that "No one does wrong willingly" could exculpate the wrongdoer, but on the other hand his insistence of Giving prior consideration on disposition over behavior indicated that punishment should be aimed at improving the wrongdoers' disposition rather than retaliating the wrongdoer for their behavior. Moreover. Plato's analysis of the wrongdoer's soul suggested that the methods to reform should be multiple: cognition, education, conditioning, even medicine could be used.In chapter 4, the author narrates Plato's theory of punishment in his different works at different period. Generally speaking, from criticizing retributivism and regarding punishment as "good" in early works to specifying reform as the end of punishment in later works, Plato's thought of punishment consistes with his moral theory that man's soul should be cared first. Whereas, retribution was implicitly used in either early works or later works, which indicated that Plato's theory of punishment has a tension between reform and retribution.Chapter 5 is the conclusion. The author firstly evaluates the status of restitution, deterrence, reform and retribution in Plato theory of punishment, then uncovers thepolitical senses of Plato's theory of punishment------transforming the strategy of moraleducation from inter-subjectivity to subjectivity, finally makes a reflection upon a problem of cruelty to which Plato's theory of punishment could give rise.