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Full Idea
More primitive men regarded the acts of violence that could befall them as an easily redressed evil and not as an offence that must be punished; they did not even dream of vengeance, except as a knee-jerk response.
Gist of Idea
Primitive people simply redressed the evil caused by violence, without thought of punishing
Source
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Discourse on the Origin of Inequality [1754], Part I)
Book Ref
Rousseau,Jean-Jacques: 'The Basic Political Writings', ed/tr. Cress,Donald A. [Hackett 1987], p.55
A Reaction
This may be Rousseau at his most optimistic, trying to deny a rather more aggressive streak in people, seen in children's playgrounds.
1659 | Protagoras seems to have made the huge move of separating punishment from revenge [Protagoras, by Vlastos] |
1661 | Socrates was the first to grasp that a cruelty is not justified by another cruelty [Vlastos on Socrates] |
1755 | Errors result from external influence, and should be corrected, not hated [Aristippus elder, by Diog. Laertius] |
8241 | Only put someone to death if the whole population believes it is deserved [Mengzi (Mencius)] |
1660 | It is noble to avenge oneself on one's enemies, and not come to terms with them [Aristotle] |
19770 | Primitive people simply redressed the evil caused by violence, without thought of punishing [Rousseau] |
7673 | Retributive punishment is better than being sent to hospital for your crimes [Kant, by Berlin] |
21433 | Violation of rights deserves punishment, which is vengeance, rather than restitution [Kant] |
24118 | Do away with punishment. Counter-retribution is as bad as the crime [Nietzsche] |
18300 | Whenever we have seen suffering, we have wanted the revenge of punishment [Nietzsche] |
23527 | Moral wickedness of an offence is always relevant to the degree of punishment [Hart,HLA] |
1658 | In early Greece the word for punishment was also the word for vengeance [Vlastos] |
20617 | How should the punishment fit the crime (for stealing chickens?) [Tuckness/Wolf] |