Policy_Memorandum.docx.pdf

Over the years in America, death penalty has been a public policy issue. Little do some people

know, it has been a topic of debate for centuries. Three different philosophers have three

different views on it and in modern law now, the death penalty is a justifiable form of

punishment. Aristotle never states outright that he is for the death penalty, but with his other

beliefs it is safe to assume that he was against it. Aquinas believed that the death penalty was an

acceptable form of punishment by those in authority. Like Aquinas, Hobbes also believed that the

death penalty was a rational form of punishment and the sovereign had the right to execute

criminals. In current times, there are people who do such unthinkable things, that the death

penalty should remain a form of punishment.

Aristotle believed that it was necessary for people to be righteous and that we learn

morality through habit and practice (Madigan, 2016). Aristotle believes it is in people’s nature to

know wrong from right, and what is morally correct and incorrect. To him, every person strived

to be righteous because that was considered the highest form of good in the world. As people

started to do wrong, they were falling into their vice, which is considered a sin or a crime.

Regardless of if the crime could be justified by the death penalty, Aristotle still saw the good in

people. Because Aristotle thought that people were meant to be moral, he also believed that it

wouldn’t be morally correct to kill somebody who still had to potential to be righteous.

Unlike Aristotle, Aquinas believed that the death penalty was an acceptable form of

punishment by those in charge, such as the government. Aquinas’ thoughts differed from

Aristotle’s in the form that regardless of morality or not, people should always follow their

conscience (McWhorter, 2020). Furthermore, Aquinas’ thought that vengeance must be equal to

the crime (Braun, 2019). With his thought that the punishment must fit the crime, he also

believed that it was the state’s right to protect the citizens from enemies and this meant any form

of punishment. Although Aquinas, believed in the death penalty he also believed that the crime

must be so damaging that killing the enemy is the only way to protect the state.

Like Aquinas, Hobbes was also for the death penalty as punishment and saw criminals as

the enemy. He thought of criminals as “having violated the social contract and hence as

“enemies” of the polity” (Brettshneider, 2007). With this, he did not see a reason for the state to

extend any sort of justification to them. Capital Punishment, to Hobbes, is “justifiable and

explainable in the following contractarian terms:

“The contract gives the sovereign the power and the right to

execute criminals not as the result of the abolition of the right of

the condemned to self-defence but through the consent of all other

citizens not to help the condemned in his attempts to exercise his

right to self-defense by escaping punishment” (Heyd, 1991).

In the United States of America, the capital punishment is still a justifiable punishment.

In fact, Dylan Roof, a young adult who was convicted of murdering numerous people in a South

Carolina Church was sentenced to death in 2017. After attempting to appeal his death sentence,

the judge claimed there was no reason to revisit his sentencing. Although no longer here, each

philosopher can agree that what Dylan Roof did was immoral and unjustifiable. Hobbes and

Aquinas would believe that the death penalty was a correct sentencing for Roof, however

Aristotle would not. In Aristotle’s mind, Rood would still have the potential to be righteous.

However, during these times it is not enough to just believe that someone can still be righteous

and forgiven for their sins. In our country, the death penalty should remain a punishment for

those who have done completely unjustifiable crimes.

References

Braun, C. N. (2019). The Morality of Retributive Targeted Killing. Journal of Military Ethics,

18(3), 170–188. https://doi.org/10.1080/15027570.2019.1659216

Brettschneider, C. (2007). The rights of the guilty: punishment and political legitimacy. Political

Theory, 35(2), 175-199.

Heyd, D. (1991). Hobbes on Capital Punishment. History of Philosophy Quarterly, 8(2), 119–134.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/27743969

Madigan, P. (2016). Aristotle’s Ethics: Moral Development and Human Nature. Heythrop

Journal, 57(1), 181–182. https://doi.org/10.1111/heyj.46_12307

McWhorter, M. (2020). Aquinas and the Moral Virtues of a Christian Person. American Catholic

Philosophical Quarterly.