Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals
Type 1
This piece from Kant in his, “The Metaphysics of Morals,” was focused on punishments. Kant focuses on how punishments must be inflicted by the court. He explains that this is done because an individual committed a crime, and should not be done to promote some other good. (Kant 331) This principle of punishment that Kant describes is also a categorical imperative. According to Kant, a categorical imperative is a moral obligation that is binding in all circumstances and is not dependent on an individual’s motivation. What matters to Kant is justice, even if that includes a punishment of death. As Kant states, “if justice is gone, there is no longer any value in men’s living on the earth.” (332) Therefore, public justice is what Kant believes to be superior.
This brings Kant to explaining what kind and what amount of punishment actually brings public justice. The answer lies within the principle of equality, which simply put is, whatever you inflict on another person, you inflict on yourself as well. (332) This is what is known as the Law of Retribution, or as I like to think of it, the idea of an eye for an eye. This law however, should only be applied by the court according to Kant, and the court can define the quality and quantity of the punishment. One issue that seems to arise is social ranks. Kant explains that fines as punishments are not great punishments since the wealthy may choose to accept a fine on purpose. An example given is a fine for verbal injury. A wealthy person may decide to choose this punishment so that they can verbally hurt another, since the fine is not an issue for them financially. Therefore, because of this, other punishments may include kissing the injured individual’s hand, which will in turn hurt the wealthy person’s pride.
Another Law of Retribution punishment Kant speaks heavily on is death, which he very much agrees with. According to Kant, every death, whether you commit it, order it, or are an accomplice to it, must suffer death. (334) The court dictates capital punishment as a means for public justice. In addition to this, Kant believes there are other crimes besides murder, that are deserving of the death penalty. The two cases he speaks on is a mother’s murder of her child and murdering a fellow soldier in a dual. Although according to Kant these cases should be punishable, they are not punishable by the supreme power. Focusing on the case of the mother, a baby born outside of marriage is outside of the law. This means that the baby is also outside of the protection of the law and cannot be punished by the law.
Kant also speaks about clemency, which is either lessening or completely removing punishment. (337) However, this is quite tricky, since one is doing an injustice to the highest degree. Kant then continues, and further discusses other situations that have a right to be punished. Rape is given the punishment of castration and bestiality is given permanent expulsion from society. (363) These crimes are known as unnatural crimes since they perpetrate humanity itself. Overall, Kant believes that public justice should be achieved, and anything that disrupts it must be punishable by the court. I find Kant to be very interesting, however, I do believe some of his views to be a bit extreme. What did you all think of this?
Kant, I., Denis, L., & Gregor, M. J. (2017). The metaphysics of morals (pp. 331–364). Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
