Punishment
Outline · 2 ›
1.The nature and sources of punishment and reward
Aesop, FablesVol. 17
- p. 12A reward is promised for service.read · scan
Pedro Calderón de la Barca, Life Is a DreamVol. 26
- p. 37Segismund speaks of retribution in reward and woe, left to the Judge and his delegates.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 306–309Death is called by law and religion both punishment and reward; she finds no earthly law to punish her wrong.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 34Praise and blame are meant to discourage wrong conduct and encourage right.read · scan
1a.Reward and punishment as the support of states and laws
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 92He chooses to undergo the sentence the State inflicts rather than run away.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 175–176Cicero defends his principle, citing Solon, that a state is held together by reward and punishment.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 41Correction by constituted authority is not sin, though we cannot know the punisher's inner motive.read · scan
Amerigo Vespucci, Amerigo Vespucci's Account of His First VoyageVol. 43
- p. 28They have no judicial system and do not punish wrongdoers, nor do parents chastise children.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 210People are deterred from evil by punishments and drawn to virtue by rewards.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 452Holy Brotherhood officers call for justice and rod of law after Quixote strikes a trooper.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 841–843The Cardinal kills Julia with a poisoned book to silence her; she calls it an equal piece of justice.read · scan
Thomas Hobbes, Of Man, Being the First Part of LeviathanVol. 34
- p. 399Accusation in civil state brings punishment, which is force a man need not submit to; criminals are led armed to execution.read · scan
- p. 401Coercive power must threaten punishment greater than the benefit expected from breach.read · scan
Sir Henry Vane, A Healing QuestionVol. 43
- p. 122The magistrate is a minister of terror and revenge to evildoers in outward dealings.read · scan
- p. 132The executive office lets reward and punishment shine forth in magistracy.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 206Observances are enforced on pain of death.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 351–352Ministers who misguide the prince must answer to the law; prince preserved only where minister is punishable.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 205Punishments had to grow severer as opportunities of offending multiplied and the law's curb was too weak.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 68Workmen's tumultuous combinations end in punishment or ruin of ringleaders, aided by the civil magistrate.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 228–229Punishments serve the people's conservation, so the people at large can never be punished by human hand.read · scan
John Marshall, Opinion of Chief Justice Marshall in the Case of McCulloch vs. the State of MarylandVol. 43
- p. 219Power to punish violations of federal law is not enumerated but is universally admitted as implied by sovereign powers.read · scan
- p. 220Public good sense holds punishment appertains to sovereignty as incidental power, though not indispensably necessary.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 205–206One man expects spies to report rioters and bring punishment on them afterwards.read · scan
- p. 213Punishment belongs to the executioner, not the mob.read · scan
- p. 216–217Ferrer promises to take the superintendent to prison, replacing the crowd's murderous purpose.read · scan
- p. 217–218He promises just punishment, muttering privately 'if he is guilty'.read · scan
- p. 219He promises the superintendent will be punished, if guilty.read · scan
- p. 222–223He promises severe punishment to the vicar and to those who would starve the people.read · scan
Constitution of the United StatesVol. 43
- p. 184–185Power to punish counterfeiting, piracies and felonies on the high seas.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 203Coercion by legal penalties or moral pressure of opinion is justified only to prevent harm to others.read · scan
- p. 205Harming others creates a prima facie case for punishment by law or general disapprobation.read · scan
- p. 290Social or legal punishment is justified only for actions prejudicial to others' interests when needed for society's protection.read · scan
1b.The doctrine that reward and penalty are intrinsic to the deed
See also: Law 1b · Justice 10c
The Book of JobVol. 44
- p. 75Sowers of trouble reap the same; retribution for wrongdoers.read · scan
Sophocles, AntigoneVol. 8
- p. 260Creon says the hired culprits will pay the penalty sooner or later.read · scan
Plutarch, PericlesVol. 12
- p. 75His losses are thought to have sufficiently punished his former arrogance.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 127The chastisement of the discontented is simply to remain as they are.read · scan
- p. 150Real penalty of disobedience is loss of faithfulness, reverence and modesty.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 341–343Pliny gains his aim of stripping Certus of his reward, and Certus dies haunted by the affair, offered as example.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 14–15Every inordinate affection is its own punishment, and his sin was justly punished by God.read · scan
- p. 40God avenges what men commit against themselves; sinning corrupts their own nature.read · scan
- p. 70The wrongdoers are punished by the very blindness by which they act, worse than what they do.read · scan
Chapters from the KoranVol. 45
- p. 913–914Doing ill is against one's own soul; hell prepared for misbelievers; each is his own accountant.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 141–144Sancho reads their mishaps as punishment for Quixote's broken knightly oath; Quixote promises amends through knighthood's manners of reconciliation.read · scan
Ben Jonson, The AlchemistVol. 47
- p. 631–633The exploded furnace is treated as retribution for lust, blocking the great work.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 845–849Bosola sees his own death plotted as the consequence of murder: black deeds are cured with death.read · scan
- p. 852–853The Cardinal says he suffers for former sin and calls sorrow the eldest child of sin.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 331Diseases are just punishment for disfiguring the divine likeness by gluttonous appetite.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 95Error and sin bring punishment.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, Minor WorksVol. 48
- p. 369Bodily ills are the punishment and symbol of the soul's diseases.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Profession of Faith of a Savoyard VicarVol. 34
- p. 264–266Denies eternal torments; the wicked are punished here by their own envy, avarice and ambition, so hell is in their hearts.read · scan
Edmund Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in FranceVol. 24
- p. 177–178Revolutionaries found their punishment in their successread · scan
William Blake, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 587–588He who mocks the infant's faith will be mocked in age and death; cruelty has its penalty.read · scan
George Long, The Philosophy of AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 338Wrongdoers should feel natural consequences, though revenge is forbidden; ignorance not a full legal excuse.read · scan
- p. 344–345Virtue's reward is intrinsic, not from others' hands, as the Greek poet's lines say.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 26–27Reward and penalty are intrinsic to the act itself; deceivers deceive themselves, and thefts never enrich.read · scan
- p. 35The unworthy preacher suffers swift retribution: everything accuses him and shame follows.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 89–90Crime and punishment grow from one stem; retribution is inherent in the deed and ripens within the pleasure.read · scan
- p. 91–92Those who dodge life's conditions suffer retribution; providence sprinkles penal blindnesses on those with unbridled desires.read · scan
- p. 92Poets recount how wrongs bring retribution, such as Ajax's sword or the rival crushed by the statue.read · scan
- p. 93–94Proverbs about paying exactly for what one has done, and curses recoiling, embody retribution.read · scan
- p. 94You cannot do wrong without suffering wrong; infractions of love and equity are punished by fear.read · scan
- p. 96–97The laws of nature become penalties to the thief; crime cannot be concealed.read · scan
- p. 98–99The whipper is whipped; persecution turns back on the wrongdoers.read · scan
- p. 99–100Though the criminal seems to escape judgment, he carries the lie with him and so decreases from nature.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 269–270The law rewards obedience and ruins those who contravene it; the reward of a thing well done is to have done it.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, WorshipVol. 5
- p. 284–285Every offence meets vengeance: gossip, resentment, fear, false relations and the reaction on the offender's own mind.read · scan
- p. 289Rewards of actions cannot be escaped; no service escapes its remuneration, as no seed dies.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, On LibertyVol. 25
- p. 272–273Self-regarding faults bring only natural consequences of others' disfavor, while injuries to others warrant moral retribution and punishment.read · scan
- p. 274Society punishes deliberately only offences against others; for self-injury we merely withhold regard and seek to alleviate the penalty.read · scan
Robert Louis Stevenson, Samuel PepysVol. 28
- p. 303Discovery of infidelities is the legitimate issue and punishment of years of loose conduct.read · scan
1c.The ethical question whether virtue requires outward reward
Plato, The Apology of SocratesVol. 2
- p. 24Asked to propose his penalty, he claims maintenance in the Prytaneum as his just due and reward.read · scan
Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12
- p. 155Rewards for valor are offered by the consul: tenth of spoils, a horse.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 163Asks whether virtue has a reward; answers that doing right is enough.read · scan
Hymns of the Christian Church: Latin HymnsVol. 45
- p. 554–556Rejects reward and hell as the motive of love.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 377Employing knaves encourages knavery instead of punishing it and alienates the reward of virtue.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 430Questions whether virtue must be rewarded with worldly goods; vice and virtue get variously rewarded.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, The Education of the Human RaceVol. 32
- p. 186–187Moral training of a childlike people had to work through rewards and punishments addressed to the senses.read · scan
- p. 196–198Temporal rewards and punishments were outgrown as guides, like sweetmeats and toys.read · scan
- p. 203–205Rewards are scaffolding for steadying man's gaze toward inner rewards of well-doing.read · scan
- p. 205–206Steps of perfection involve temporal punishments and rewards, then eternal ones.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, CharacteristicsVol. 25
- p. 325Goodness must appeal to precept, sanctions, rewards and punishments once it loses spontaneity.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 87Reward and punishment create intense associations but with only artificial, non-natural ties.read · scan
1d.Necessity and character as the ground of punishing
Plutarch, CoriolanusVol. 12
- p. 180–181She notes he is relentless punishing the ungrateful yet has not repaid his own debt.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 365Rewards and punishments presuppose regular motives producing good actions and preventing evil ones.read · scan
- p. 365–366Without necessity, actions from no durable character could not justify vengeance or punishment of the person.read · scan
- p. 371–372Rewards and punishments train dogs to fear the whip.read · scan
Outline · 2 ›