Utopia and Punishments

Of the arguments of Hythloday in Utopia, one in particular stands as a critique of the penal system and punishment. In Of the Best State of a Commonwealth, Hythloday critiques the practice of putting men to death for thievery. Making theft a capital crime is not in the best interest of the commonwealth, according to Hythloday. In this argument we discover that a just society to Hythloday is one that resembles the just state as outlined by Plato in The Republic. In Utopia, we are told that Hythloday is akin in character and nature to the kind of guardian (i.e. philosopher) Plato argues best rules the state. We are told in Utopia that Hythloday is the wisest philosopher who "neither desire[s] wealth nor greatness" (More 1516, 5). This kind of individual is the only one fit to rule the state in a just manner. Hythloday is also quite similar to the only kind of individual Plato argues is fitted to create a just state. In The Republic Plato explains such individuals as men who "delight in meditation and understanding; who yearn not for goods, not for victory, but for knowledge; who leave both market and battle-field to lose themselves in the quiet clarity of secluded thought" (Durant 1953, 22).

Hythloday will outline his reasons for viewing the punishment of death for theft as unjust, but first he makes a critique against states that involve themselves in war and conquest at the expense of wisely ruling the kingdoms they possess, "�most princes apply themselves more to af

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's commandments, "God has commanded us not to kill, and shall we kill so easily for a little money?" (More 1516, 11). Hythloday insists that manmade laws do not supercede God's laws, regardless of how many men or of what position might consent to such laws. His argument rests upon the new thinking of More's time, that political ideals and state rule should be based upon moral standards. As Hythloday explains to the Cardinal, "For God having taken from us the right of disposing either of our own or of other people's lives, if it is pretended that the mutual consent of men in making laws can authorize manslaughter in cases in which God has given us no example, that it frees people from the obligation of the divine law, and so makes murder a lawful action, what is this, but to give preference to human laws before the divine?" (More 1516, 11). Many contemporary arguments against capital punishment in general rely upon a similar critique as Hythloday's. Hythloday is arguing that it is unjust for manmade laws to take precedence over the higher nature of divine law. Many individuals who are opposed to capital punishment view it as sanctioned murder by the state. Indeed, those who are opposed to capital punishment often point to its

Category: Philosophy - U