Enlightenment Vs Punishment

Individuals are always seeking to move forward with their own agenda of self-interests. This leads to significant problems for society as a whole due to the maelstrom of violence and chaos that ensues. Throughout history, the thinkers of the ages have attempted to solve this problem, but the Enlightenment has risen a new perspective in order to quell our self-interests: to submit to a social contract. One thinker, named Cesare Beccaria, posits that we must suppress our desires by using punishments and preventions as forms of deterrence in order to achieve an ideal society.
It is necessary that we examine where punishments originate from to further discuss them as means of deterrence. Beccaria argues that laws are the expression of the social

So, Beccaria argues that we should measure the crimes and the appropriate punishment by the “harm they cause society” (14). Hence, since not all crimes are of the same calibre as “every crime, however private it may be, offends society, […] not every crime threatens it directly with destruction” (18), we must differentiate between the most severe crimes, such as those that threaten the foundation of society and milder crimes that threaten the individual. After this has been established, it is then possible to assign the appropriate punishment which will act as an effective deterrent to prevent others from executing the same crime. It is important to keep in mind that if punishments are given out arbitrarily, then it diminishes its effect and can only instigate further crimes. For example, if a person were to steal a pack of gums at a store and is aware that the punishment for such a crime is the death penalty, then they will likely commit other crimes in order to prevent themselves from getting caught. This is what Beccaria wants to avoid: an escalation in crime, which is useless because it only serves to endanger society and not reach its goal of effectively deterring others to commit the same crime. However, the reverse of this principle is also true, where a person who has committed a severe crime gets a

One of the steps that we can take to prevent crime from even occurring is to ensure that the laws that are enacted are not vague. In order to do so, we must make certain that the laws are clear is to have them written in a common language so that we can ensure that it is not “foreign to the common people” (Beccaria 12). This should be done to make certain that people understand the law and are able to realize the consequences of committing a crime as the citizenry will be less likely to commit a crime which allows our self-interests to be controlled. However, Beccaria goes deeper and suggests that we must also make sure the laws are written down. This is necessary and useful because if the laws are not written down, they would be easily forgotten and the social contract would dissipate into the annals of history. Additionally, if the laws are written down, they can be changed as necessary and this represents a degree of utility because as society progresses, our self-interests change and if the laws remain constant, they will not be able to deter effectively. From this, Beccaria takes it one step further by arguing that to further prevent crimes, we must disseminate the laws through the printing press. Not only does this also have the effect of safeguarding that the laws are not forgotten, but it also serves to reduce the atrocity of crimes being committed.