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Plato Death Penalty

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INTRODUCTION:
Throughout history, governments have been able to use the work and thought of philosophers to develop policies and laws to protect the citizens of the state. The United States for example, included John Locke’s ideas of the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the Declaration of Independence. However, not all policies proposed by the state would be supported by philosophers, so is the case of the death penalty, also known as the capital punishment. When discussing the implementation of Plato’s thoughts into the American political system in a type of reform, it becomes evident that one of the main changes he would make would be to ban the death penalty. Mainly, because Plato observes the punishment of others as …show more content…

21). His thought on the practice of the death penalty was that the punishment would not serve its purpose of demonstrating to the public what could happen when they opposed the government. The same happens today, society observes the capital punishment as a reminder to follow the rules proclaimed by the elected officials. However, as research has demonstrated, the death penalty will often fail to help the individuals affected by the criminal’s acts as it is a rapid answer to the problem and does not allow for those affected to heal (Death Penalty Information Center, …show more content…

I do consider the death penalty to be ineffective in the healing of the victim’s family and find that the death penalty does little to nothing in the suppression of crimes as those who have been sentenced to death if found innocent at any given point will struggle with their integration to society. When Plato discussed the idea that one shouldn’t enforce harm upon someone who enforced harm upon us for that is still unjust, it is describing the death penalty and how a person can have the right to choose who lives and who dies based on the judgement of the harm that the person inflicted upon others. Either way, the person deciding whether to sentence the individual to death row or not is acting unjustly as it is inhumane to decide upon a person’s life. As well, there is the idea that through the death penalty does not suffice the crime that the individual perpetrated. Plato mentions that he can post a bail that he can pay but he is not going to do so for the punishment would not suffice. As mentioned by the Death Penalty Information Center, there is discrimination within the sentencing of death row which means that some depending on their race and not their actions will be

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