Punishment and the Spirit of Democracy

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George Kateb Punishment and the Spirit of Democracy P U N IS H M E N T TH A T IS A D M IN IS T E R E D D IRECTLY BY T H E STATE IS ONE o f those subjects that are hard to pin down. There is no theoretical defense of the reasons for punishm ent that wins common assent. All the principal justifications for it have a long history, but their inter­ relationship and their comparative im portance differ from thinker to thinker. In any given analysis, furtherm ore, some justifications may even be ignored or rejected. The explanation and defense of punish­ m ent rem ain open to dispute, and probably always will. Strong intellec­ tual passion, however, does not account for such dispute. In my opinion, punishm ent is a grave subject, but I do not think th at it arouses an intense intellectual response that is com m ensurate w ith the gravity. The core of punishm ent is the deliberate infliction of pain on a hum an being. Should there be no m oral puzzlem ent in the veiy fact of deliberate inflic

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