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Why do we punish, according to Nietzsche?

In his On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche explains that punishment comes from ancient forms of war. As he writes, "Punishment at this level of civilization is simply a copy, a mimus, of normal behaviour towards a hated, disarmed enemy who has been defeated" (page 47). He says that punishment is a replication of the way in which defeated enemies were treated in less advanced societies.


He writes that punishment today defies definition and that...

In his On the Genealogy of Morals, Nietzsche explains that punishment comes from ancient forms of war. As he writes, "Punishment at this level of civilization is simply a copy, a mimus, of normal behaviour towards a hated, disarmed enemy who has been defeated" (page 47). He says that punishment is a replication of the way in which defeated enemies were treated in less advanced societies.


He writes that punishment today defies definition and that it is difficult to say why people are punished in the modern age. He says, "Today it is impossible to say precisely why people are actually punished: all concepts in which an entire process is semiotically concentrated defy definition; only something which has no history can be defined" (page 53). He goes on to say that punishment has been used in the past for many purposes, including preventing further harm, making payment to a creditor, inspiring fear in the perpetrator, correcting the advantages the perpetrator has enjoyed to date, rooting out the enemy, and even as celebrating a festival in which the enemy is destroyed, among other uses (pages 53-54). 



However, Nietzsche writes that the one supposed benefit of punishment, that it creates a feeling of remorse or guilt, what he calls a "pang of conscience" (page 54), rarely occurs. He writes, "On the whole, punishment makes men harder and colder, it concentrates, it sharpens the feeling of alienation; it strengthens the power to resist" (page 54). Punishment does not result in creating feelings of bad conscience in the offender; instead, the offender simply accepted his punishment in a fatalistic way. Therefore, the purpose of punishment comes from earlier forms of retribution rather than from its efficacy in creating feelings of guilt in the perpetrator. 


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