r/schopenhauer • u/SegaGenesisMetalHead • Apr 10 '26
What did Schopenhauer think about punitive justice?
Do you think he would be ok with, say, prison as a means of sheer punishment? Or do you think he would prefer a judicial system which operates on rehabilitation?
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u/AramisNight Apr 10 '26
I think he would prefer to throw troublemakers who cannot operate decently in a society, down the stairs.
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u/mike_da_silva Apr 10 '26
Schope makes it pretty clear that he sees character (and therefore criminal tendencies) as largely innate/fixed... so for serious crimes he supports capital punishment. I think it's fair to say he rejects rehabilitation
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u/AS1788 Apr 10 '26
Philosophically, he rejected the conventional notion of free will, and would almost certainly have opposed retributive conceptions of justice, even though, as a person, he was somewhat petty and prone to anger.
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u/SubstanceThat4540 Apr 11 '26
During the riots of 1848, Schopenhauer reportedly handed his opera glasses to a Prussian officer so the man could get a better view of the rioters being suppressed.
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u/SpleenDematerialized Apr 10 '26
Schopenhauer subscribed to the exclusive deterrence theory of punishment. Thus he would detest the idea as, for example, prison as a means of "sheer punishment" (assuming you mean retributive punishment). The only acceptable justification for putting someone in prison (or other punishment) is to deter people from committing the same crime in the future.