Does Boethius Deserve Punishment

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In The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius argues that those who are wicked are miserable and deserve punishment. He argues that physical punishment is just, as it leads those who sin to true happiness by re-aligning them onto God’s path. However, these arguments are not completely valid due to ethical guidelines and the idea that use of force can always produce false testimonies. With this and Boethius’s perspective in mind, I will choose a course of action which does not use physical force and instead try to gain a confession through other means. In The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius claims that “sin never goes unpunished or virtue unrewarded, and that what happens to the good is always happy and that what happens to the bad is always …show more content…

In punishing those who have committed sin, one is keeping the wicked weak and giving them what they deserve. Furthermore, punishment for those who have committed wicked acts helps the society since those who see these punishments being carried out would be deterred from committing wicked acts in order to not experience these consequences (Boethius 98). Overall, according to Boethius, the act of punishment in general is seen as a way to keep a lawful society and is an act from “the Creator Himself” (Boethius 85). Additionally, in Book IV, Boethius states that “the wicked are happier if they suffer punishment than if they are unrestrained by any retribution” (Boethius 97). The logic here, as Boethius explains, is that based on the assumption that wickedness can be corrected by punishment, those who are wicked and get punished get justice. This justice puts them on the path to goodness and true happiness. This path of good and true happiness puts them back on the path of God and God’s grace. This is because, as proven in Book III, true happiness is …show more content…

To torture another human being is not an act of goodness and so this would only put me, as the interrogator, in a position where I am straying off my own path of divinity. To torture someone for simply making an error and straying off the path puts me in the position of acting as God. This is not possible as Boethius also establishes that humans are lesser than God. Additionally, the use of torture can lead to false confessions due to the fact that a person will say anything in order to prevent bodily harm.In the future, it is against the law for police officers to subject those in their custody to physical torture due to the high rate of false confessions. When a false confession is produced, a person who is innocent is one who is suffering rather than the real wicked person. These acts of torture then stray both the perpetrator and the victim off the path of God, rather than onto a path of righteousness. Those who are wicked and get punished may not always change their habits and so they are not benefitting from this sense of moral betterment since they do not take accountability and change their

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