Abstract
This chapter highlights the development of the philosophy of punishment through the lens of ancient, Renaissance, and Enlightenment philosophers. It discusses centuries-old legal codes and, among others, the philosophies of Plato, Draco, Solon, Machiavelli, Montaigne, Voltaire, Beccaria, Montesquieu, Hegel, and Kant. In highlighting the Enlightenment’s influence on criminal justice practices, including the abolition or abandonment of the death penalty and draconian corporal punishments, the chapter sheds light on the transition from the “divine right of kings” to the Rule of Law and equality of treatment as the foundation for legal systems; the shift from biblical and religious justifications to secular rationales, such as proportionality and parsimony, for punishment; and the switch from “sanguinary” or “bloody” laws and punishments to the “penitentiary” system.
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Bessler, J.D. (2023). The Philosophy of Punishment and the Arc of Penal Reform: From Ancient Lawgivers to the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, and through the Nineteenth Century. In: Altman, M.C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook on the Philosophy of Punishment. Palgrave Handbooks in the Philosophy of Law. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11874-6_2
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