2018

Abstract: This article addresses the issue of the meaning of punishment from the perspective of its two fundamental philosophical presuppositions. The first part examines the presupposition of the fiction of the individual’s free will by presenting key concepts and arguments from the work of Immanuel Kant. The second part of the article examines the presupposition of the exemplary and deterrent nature of punishment. In the author’s view, this dimension of punishment is expressed as an anthropological reality. The focus of this second part is the presentation of concepts and arguments from the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer. 

 

Keywords: punishment, exemplary punishment, deterrence, legal fiction, individual freedom, Schopenhauer, Kant