How to Do the Right Thing by Seneca

Author:Seneca
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2023-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Seneca explains how Stoic mercy confronts the necessity of punishment in a way that is dispassionate and carefully calibrated: it does not dwell on the past but looks to the future, aiming not at retribution but at improving the wrongdoer or the community at large.

22 (1) In requiting injuries the law pursues these three goals: correcting the person punished, or making all others better people by punishing him,2 or allowing them to live more securely once bad actors have been removed from their midst. You will more easily correct the wrongdoer with a lesser penalty: people conduct their lives more carefully when left something whole and unsullied, whereas no one is chary of a self-respect that has been utterly lost. Having nothing that punishment can affect is a kind of impunity. (2) Moreover, a sparing use of punishment does more to correct a community’s habits, for a multitude of wrongdoers makes wrongdoing a matter of habit: condemnations that come thick and fast lessen the stigma of punishment, and strictness, when unrelieved, loses its moral authority, which is its most important healing power.… 23 (2) In a community where people are rarely punished,3 innocence comes to enjoy general support and is kindly regarded as a common good. Provided a community thinks of itself as innocent, it will be; it will be more indignant at those who depart from the general standard of goodness if it sees that they are few. (On Mercy 1.22.1–2, 23.2)

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.