A Study Of Purpose Penalty From The Perspective Of Plato's Philosophy

In order to prove criminal law is a rightful being,Retributive Theory and Utilitarian Theory or even the Compromised Theory have been proposed by authors.But the truth is: all these theories seem to emphasize the political right of criminal law,but none of these theories proved how and why criminal law is good to people and the society.For centuries,the Being of Criminal Law is under criticism both from philosophy and jurisprudence.Through the guidance of a quote “ Could it be that only through criminal law can we get to the question of what is philosophy?”,the connection point of criminal law and philosophy is discovered.In Plato’s Law,Plato saw criminal law as the only treatment of human’s soul.Plato’s philosophy aims for “good”,and criminal law is the only way to help people and the society to reach “good”.Beside,by the “good” use of punishment,both civilian and criminals can receive “good” education and the broken relationship between the victims of criminals will be recovered.Thus,Plato regard criminal law as the “Noblest Law”.In some way,Plato’s philosophy is teleological.Thus the Intention Penalty Theory is the closest one to Plato’s philosophy among all the penalty theory.However,the Intention Penalty Theory based on the “pain” and the “harm” of penalty and the utilitarian nature of it will lead the penalty to over-punishment and having innocent be punished.So the Intention Penalty Theory needs to be modified.This thesis is under Plato’s guidance.By using Plato’s theory,a penalty theory based on “good” philosophical concept will be found.