A Handbook of Ethical TheoryFullerton, George Stuart
Philosophy
A Handbook of Ethical Theory
Fullerton, George Stuart
Ethics
(1) It is desirable that men should be deterred from committing crime. If
this cannot be done save by the infliction of punishment, then let men be
punished. But be it remembered that punishment is a regrettable
necessity, and that the occasions for the infliction of penalties may
greatly be diminished by the amelioration of the organism of society.
There is the born criminal, as there is the born inmate of an asylum for
the insane. But there is also the manufactured criminal; the product of
the slum, the victim of ignorance, the prey of the walking-delegate, the
sufferer from over-work and undernourishment, the inhabitant of the
filthy and overcrowded tenement, the man robbed of his self-respect, who
has no share in the sweetness and light of civilization. A society that
first manufactures criminals and then expends great sums in punishing
them is, in so far, not rational.
(2) It is desirable that the criminal should be reformed and returned to
society as a normal man. But this is not the one and only aim of the
social will. The whole flock should not be sacrificed to the one black
sheep, as some sentimental persons appear to believe. There is room here
for the exercise of judgment and of some cool calculation.
(3) As for the demand that a given pain shall be inflicted for a given
wrong done, irrespective of any gain to anybody, and irrespective of
consequences,--it appears to carry one back to ancient and primitive law.
Undoubtedly many punishments have been inflicted in the past to satisfy
the sense of resentment. [Footnote: It may be objected that we are not
concerned here with resentment but with the satisfaction of "justice."
Men's notions of the "justice" of punishments have been touched upon in
chapter ii, Sec 4. Plato suggests, in his Laws, that the slave who steals a
bunch of grapes should receive a blow for every grape in the bunch. This
has an agreeably mathematical flavor of exactitude. But what shall be
done to the man who steals half of a ham or a third of a watermelon?]
Undoubtedly the same is true of the present. Can anything be said in
favor of this impulse? It plays no small part in the life of humanity.
We feel that a bad man _ought_ to be punished. We harbor a certain
resentment against him. The resentment of the individual for personal
injuries we recognize to be wrong. It is not impartial, and it is apt to
be excessive and unreasoning. Public order demands that it be refused
expression.
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