Editing Capital punishment (section)

===Ancient Greece===
[[File:David - The Death of Socrates.jpg|thumb|[[The Death of Socrates]] (1787), in the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York City]]
[[Protagoras]] (whose thought is reported by [[Plato]]) criticised the principle of revenge, because once the damage is done it cannot be cancelled by any action. So, if the death penalty is to be imposed by society, it is only to protect the latter against the criminal or for a dissuasive purpose.<ref>{{harvnb|Jean-Marie Carbasse|2002|p=15|id=Carbasse2002}}</ref> "The only right that Protagoras knows is therefore human right, which, established and sanctioned by a sovereign collectivity, identifies itself with positive or the law in force of the city. In fact, it finds its guarantee in the death penalty which threatens all those who do not respect it."<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N9Y2aYV5RTkC&q=Protagoras+%22peine+de+mort%22&pg=PA58|title = Platonisme politique et théorie du droit naturel: Le platonisme politique dans l'antiquité|isbn = 9789068317688|last1 = Neschke|first1 = Ada Babette|last2 = Follon|first2 = Jacques|year = 1995| publisher=Peeters Publishers }}</ref><ref>{{cite book| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N9Y2aYV5RTkC| title = Platonisme politique et théorie du droit naturel: Le platonisme politique dans l'antiquité| isbn = 9789068317688| last1 = Neschke| first1 = Ada Babette| last2 = Follon| first2 = Jacques| year = 1995| publisher = Peeters Publishers}}</ref>

Plato saw the death penalty as a means of purification, because crimes are a "defilement". Thus, in the [[Laws (dialogue)|Laws]], he considered necessary the execution of the animal or the destruction of the object which caused the death of a man by accident. For the murderers, he considered that the act of homicide is not natural and is not fully consented by the criminal. Homicide is thus a disease of the [[soul]], which must be reeducated as much as possible, and, as a last resort, sentence to death if no rehabilitation is possible.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.puf.com/content/La_peine_de_mort_0| title = La peine de mort| access-date = 26 October 2020| archive-date = 29 October 2020| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201029153208/https://www.puf.com/content/La_peine_de_mort_0| url-status = dead}}</ref>

According to [[Aristotle]], for whom free will is proper to man, a person is responsible for their actions. If there was a crime, a judge must define the penalty allowing the crime to be annulled by compensating it. This is how pecuniary compensation appeared for criminals the least recalcitrant and whose rehabilitation is deemed possible. However, for others, he argued, the death penalty is necessary.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://ihd.edu.umontpellier.fr/jean-marie-carbasse/| title = Jean-Marie Carbasse| access-date = 27 October 2020| archive-date = 9 July 2023| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230709192102/https://ihd.edu.umontpellier.fr/jean-marie-carbasse/| url-status = dead}}</ref>

This philosophy aims on the one hand to protect society and on the other hand to compensate to cancel the consequences of the crime committed. It inspired Western criminal law until the 17th century, a time when the first reflections on the abolition of the death penalty appeared.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://deathpenalty.procon.org/historical-timeline/| title = 1700 BC – 1799| date = 5 February 2025}}</ref>