The Philosophy of Punishment: A Study to the History of Classical and Positive Schools of Penology

Philosophy of punishment is as old as man himself; when Adam and Eve violated God’s commandment, they had been descended to Earth, and when ancient peoples shed blood, God created humans. Therefore, the idea of punishment may be considered as older than the human existence and consecrated in religious teachings and holly books and applied by peoples of different stages of human evolution, and even to this day. The current paper highlights the history of penal development, and the origin and philosophy of punishment. The classical school was founded in the 18th century and its birth was as the result of prior barbarous systems of penology. Before the advent of this school, criminal were facing several types of barbaric penalties, such as isolation, keeping him in snake pits...etc. Other methods of punishment like squeezing, strangulating, burning and cutting the limbs of criminals were widely applied. The classical school’s thought was against barbaric and cruel techniques of criminal sanctions, and it was developed by philosophies of Rousseau, Beccaria, Bentham, Feurbach, such thoughts will addressed in the present study.