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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page paper which considers the validity of Socrates’ argument that just punishment benefits those upon whom it is imposed because it ‘cures’ them of their wickedness. Specifically considered is if punishment should be directed toward curing criminals or if it should have some other aim such as a deterrent or exacting retribution and whether punishment actually ‘cures’ criminals or should be replaced by psychiatric or other forms of treatment. Bibliography lists 7 sources.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: TG15_TGgorpun.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Polus that misbehavior warrants punishment and that if the punishment received is just, those upon whom it is imposed will be cured of their wicked or evil behavior. He
claims, in essence, that people want to be saved from performing misdeeds because wickedness punishes the body and the soul because of the strong interconnection between the two. Socrates
then goes on to support his argument by comparing wickedness to an illness that needs desperately to be cured. Of course, people dont necessarily want what is best for
them, as he notes, "The state of an archcriminal, with his utter immorality, who successfully avoids being criticized and disciplined and punished... Their achievement... is not so very different
from that of someone in the grip of an extremely severe illness who successfully avoids having the doctors exact the penalty for his bodys crimes-that is, who avoids medical treatment--because
hes childishly frightened of the pain of cautery and surgery... The worst state of all, then, is to have it and not to be saved from it" (479a-b). As
Socrates sees it, those who commit wicked or criminal acts "are like the sick who stay away from doctors through fear... They are afraid because ignorant, and perceive the pain
and not the benefits; nor do they apprehend that a sick soul is worse than a sick body" (Plochmann and Robinson 94-95). Naturally, for Socrates, the perfect remedy is,
as the clich? goes, a punishment that fits the crime. Socrates was a humanist philosopher who believed that curing the ills of humanity would keep society healthy.
In 1977, a seventeen-year psychological study conducted by psychologist Stanton Samenow and psychiatrist Samuel Yochelson, "The Criminal Personality," was published, which reached a similar conclusion to Socrates: "The solution to
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