Justice or mercy
On the axis: The meaning of punishment · the deserved punishment
Must the deserved penalty always be inflicted, or can clemency, pardon, and forgiveness legitimately set it aside without betraying justice?
Justification
In On Clemency, addressed to Nero, and in , Seneca rejects vengeance: one punishes not because a wrong has been done but so that none be done again, looking to the future, not the past. Punishment aims at correcting the offender and deterring others, never at satisfying a retributive anger.
No wise man punishes because a wrong has been done, but so that no wrong be done again.On Anger, I, 19 (citing Plato)
On Anger, I, 16 and 19 (punishing to correct, not to avenge) · On Clemency, I (the clemency of the prince)
Justification
Clemency, the prince's master virtue, disposes one to gentleness in setting penalties and to indulgence toward another's fault, from greatness of soul rather than from the offender's desert. This inclination to excuse and to understand human failings leans toward an unconditional remission, grounded in the magnanimity of the .
On Clemency, II, 3-7 (clemency, the soul's inclination to gentleness) · On Anger, II, 28-34 (being indulgent, for we all err)
Anchors: Seneca
leads to: Forgiveness (Justice or mercy)