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Friday, January 31, 2025

Cardinal virtues

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardinal_virtues

The cardinal virtues are four virtues of mind and character in classical philosophy. They are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. They form a virtue theory of ethics. The term cardinal comes from the Latin cardo (hinge); these four virtues are called "cardinal" because all other virtues fall under them and hinge upon them.

These virtues derive initially from Plato in Republic Book IV, 426-435. Aristotle expounded them systematically in the Nicomachean Ethics. They were also recognized by the Stoics and Cicero expanded on them. In the Christian tradition, they are also listed in the Deuterocanonical books in Wisdom of Solomon 8:7 and 4 Maccabees 1:18–19, and the Doctors Ambrose, Augustine, and Aquinas expounded their supernatural counterparts, the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.

Four cardinal virtues

Prudence (φρόνησις, phrónēsis; Latin: prudentia; also wisdom, sophia, sapientia), the ability to discern the appropriate course of action to be taken in a given situation at the appropriate time, with consideration of potential consequences; cautiousness.
Justice (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosýnē; Latin: iustitia): also considered as fairness; the Greek word also having the meaning righteousness.
Courage (ἀνδρεία, andreía; Latin: fortitudo): forbearance, strength, endurance, fortitude (patience and perseverance), dedication and the ability to confront fear, uncertainty, and intimidation (bravery, boldness, valor, daring). Notably, ἀνδρεία, being closely related to ἀνήρ ("adult male"), could also be translated "manliness". Some other definitions of courage are "Andrea, virtus, spirit, heart, mettle, thumos, tenacity, gameness, resolution, bravery, boldness, valor, daring, hardihood, assertiveness, frame, gravitas, determination".
Temperance (σωφροσύνη, sōphrosýnē; Latin: temperantia): also known as restraint, the practice of self-control, abstention, discretion, and moderation tempering the appetition. Plato considered sōphrosynē, which may also be translated as sound-mindedness, to be the most important virtue. σωφροσύνη was often used in reference to drinking and "knowing the right amount" to avoid belligerence.

Gallery, depiction of the cardinal virtues in 9th-century Europe

An early European representation of the cardinal virtues from 845 AD is found in the Vivian Bible, Paris.

The four virtues (in the corners) face a scene with King David (center), along with men who served David and who wrote psalms.
Fortitudo or Courage, from the Vivian Bible, Bibliothèque nationale, Latin 1, folio 215v.
Prydentia or Prudentia (Prudence), from the Vivian Bible.
Iustitia or Justice, from the Vivian Bible.
Temperantia or Temperance, from the Vivian Bible.

Antiquity

The four cardinal virtues appeared as a group (sometimes included in larger lists) long before they were given this title.

Hellenistic philosophy

Plato associated the four cardinal virtues with the social classes of the ideal city described in The Republic, and with the faculties of humanity. Plato narrates a discussion of the character of a good city where the following is agreed upon:

Clearly, then, it will be wise, brave, temperate [literally: healthy-minded], and just.

Temperance was most closely associated with the producing classes, the farmers and craftsmen, to moderate their animal appetites. Fortitude was assigned to the warrior class, to strengthen their fighting spirit. Prudence was assigned to the rulers, to guide their reason. Justice stood above these three to properly regulate the relations among them.

Plato sometimes lists holiness (hosiotes, eusebeia, aidos) amongst the cardinal virtues. He especially associates holiness with justice, but leaves their precise relationship unexplained.

In Aristotle's Rhetoric, we read:

The forms of Virtue are justice, courage, temperance, magnificence, magnanimity, liberality, gentleness, prudence, wisdom.
— Rhetoric 1366b1

These are expounded fully in the Nicomachean Ethics III.6-V.2.

Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, also recognized the four cardinal virtues as prudence, temperance, courage, and justice. In his writings, he states:

In these words Moses intends to sketch out the particular virtues. And they also are four in number, prudence, temperance, courage, and justice.
— Philo, Philo's Works, Allegorical Interpretation 1.XIX

These virtues, according to Philo, serve as guiding principles for a virtuous and fulfilling life.

Roman philosophy

The Roman philosopher and statesman Cicero (106-43 BC), like Plato, limits the list to four virtues:

Virtue may be defined as a habit of mind (animi) in harmony with reason and the order of nature. It has four parts: wisdom (prudentiam), justice, courage, temperance.
— De Inventione, II, LIII

Cicero discusses these further in De Officiis (I, V, and following).

Seneca writes in Consolatio ad Helviam Matrem about justice (iustitia from Ancient Greek δικαιοσύνη), self-control (continentia from Ancient Greek σωφροσύνη), practical wisdom (prudentia from Ancient Greek φρόνησις) and devotion (pietas) instead of courage (fortitudo from Ancient Greek ἀνδρεία).

The Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius discusses these in Book V:12 of Meditations and views them as the "goods" that a person should identify in one's own mind, as opposed to "wealth or things which conduce to luxury or prestige".

Suggestions of the Stoic virtues can be found in fragments in the Diogenes Laertius and Stobaeus.

The Platonist view of the four cardinal virtues is described in Definitions.

Practical wisdom or prudence (phrónēsis) is the perspicacity necessary to conduct personal business and affairs of state. It encompasses the skill to distinguish the beneficial from the detrimental, to understand the attainment of happiness, and to discern the right course of action in every situation. Its antithesis or opposite is the vice of folly.

Justice (dikaiosunê) is the harmonious alignment of one's inner self and the comprehensive integrity of the soul. It involves fostering sound discipline within each facet of our being, enabling us to live with others and extend the same regard to every individual. Additionally, justice pertains to a state's aptitude to equitably allocate resources based on individuals' deservingness, as determined by their merits. It entails refraining from undue harshness, fostering a universal perception of fairness. Furthermore, it entails embodying the qualities of a law-abiding citizen or member of society, upholding principles of social equality. Justice encompasses the formulation of laws that can be substantiated by valid justifications, leading to a society where actions align with these laws.

Moderation or temperance (sôphrosunê) is the capacity to temper the indulgence of desires and sensory pleasures within the bounds of what is customary for the individual, aligning only with experiences already familiar to the soul. It encompasses achieving a harmonious equilibrium and exercising disciplined control when it comes to overall pleasure and pain, ensuring that they remain within normal ranges. Moreover, moderation involves cultivating a harmonious relationship and a balanced rule between the soul's governing and being governed aspects. It signifies maintaining a state of natural self-reliance and exercising proper discipline as and when required by the soul. Rational consensus within the soul is essential concerning what merits admiration and what warrants disdain. This approach entails deliberate caution in one's choices, as one's selection navigates between the extremes.

Courage (andreia) can be defined as the ability to conquer fear within oneself when action is necessary. It encompasses military confidence, a deep understanding of warfare, and maintaining unwavering beliefs in the face of challenges. It involves self-discipline to overcome fear, obeying wisdom, and facing death boldly. Courage also entails maintaining sound judgment in tough situations, countering hostility, upholding virtues, remaining composed when faced with frightening (or encouraging) discussions and events, and not becoming discouraged. It reflects valuing the rule of law in our daily lives rather than diminishing its importance.

In the Bible

In the Old Testament

The cardinal virtues are listed in the deuterocanonical book Wisdom of Solomon 8:7, which reads:

She [Wisdom] teaches temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.

They are also found in other non-canonical scriptures like 4 Maccabees 1:18–19, which relates:

Now the kinds of wisdom are right judgment, justice, courage, and self-control. Right judgment is supreme over all of these since by means of it reason rules over the emotions.

In the New Testament

Wisdom, usually sophia, rather than Prudence (phrónēsis), is discussed extensively in all parts of the New Testament. It is a major topic of 1 Corinthians 2, where the author discusses how divine teaching and power are greater than worldly wisdom.

Justice (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosýnē) is taught in the gospels, where most translators give it as "righteousness".

Plato's word for Fortitude (ἀνδρεία) is not present in the New Testament, but the virtues of steadfastness (ὑπομονή, hypomonē) and patient endurance (μακροθυμία, makrothymia) are praised. Paul exhorts believers to "act like men" (ἀνδρίζομαι, andrizomai, 1 Corinthians 16:13).

Temperance (σωφροσύνη, sōphrosýnē), usually translated "sobriety," is present in the New Testament, along with self-control (ἐγκράτεια, egkrateia).

In Christian tradition

Catholic moral theology drew from both the Wisdom of Solomon and the Fourth Book of Maccabees in developing its thought on the virtues. Ambrose (c. 330s – c. 397) used the expression "cardinal virtues":

And we know that there are four cardinal virtues - temperance, justice, prudence, and fortitude.
— Commentary on Luke, V, 62

Augustine of Hippo, discussing the morals of the church, described them:

For these four virtues (would that all felt their influence in their minds as they have their names in their mouths!), I should have no hesitation in defining them: that temperance is love giving itself entirely to that which is loved; fortitude is love readily bearing all things for the sake of the loved object; justice is love serving only the loved object, and therefore ruling rightly; prudence is love distinguishing with sagacity between what hinders it and what helps it.
— De moribus eccl., Chap. xv

In relation to the theological virtues

The "cardinal" virtues are not the same as the three theological virtues: Faith, Hope, and Charity (Love), named in 1 Corinthians 13.

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Because of this reference, a group of seven virtues is sometimes listed by adding the four cardinal virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude, justice) and three theological virtues (faith, hope, charity). While the first four date back to Greek philosophers and were applicable to all people seeking to live moral lives, the theological virtues appear to be specific to Christians as written by Paul in the New Testament.

Efforts to relate the cardinal and theological virtues differ. Augustine sees faith as coming under justice. Beginning with a wry comment about the moral mischief of pagan deities, he writes:

They [the pagans] have made Virtue also a goddess, which, indeed, if it could be a goddess, had been preferable to many. And now, because it is not a goddess, but a gift of God, let it be obtained by prayer from Him, by whom alone it can be given, and the whole crowd of false gods vanishes. For as much as they have thought proper to distribute virtue into four divisions - prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance - and as each of these divisions has its own virtues, faith is among the parts of justice, and has the chief place with as many of us as know what that saying means, ‘The just shall live by faith.’
— City of God, IV, 20

Dante Alighieri also attempts to relate the cardinal and theological virtues in his Divine Comedy, most notably in the complex allegorical scheme drawn in Purgatorio XXIX to XXXI. Depicting a procession in the Garden of Eden (which the author situates at the top of the mountain of purgatory), Dante describes a chariot drawn by a gryphon and accompanied by a vast number of figures, among which stand three women on the right side dressed in red, green, and white, and four women on the left, all dressed in purple. The chariot is generally understood to represent the holy church, with the women on right and left representing the theological and cardinal virtues respectively. The exact meaning of the allegorical women's role, behaviour, interrelation, and color-coding remains a matter of literary interpretation.

In relation to the seven deadly sins

In the High Middle Ages, some authors opposed the seven virtues (cardinal plus theological) to the seven deadly sins. However, “treatises exclusively concentrating on both septenaries are actually quite rare.” and “examples of late medieval catalogues of virtues and vices which extend or upset the double heptad can be easily multiplied.” And there are problems with this parallelism:

The opposition between the virtues and the vices to which these works allude despite the frequent inclusion of other schemes may seem unproblematic at first sight. The virtues and the vices seem to mirror each other as positive and negative moral attitudes, so that medieval authors, with their keen predilection for parallels and oppositions, could conveniently set them against each other. … Yet artistic representations such as Conrad’s trees are misleading in that they establish oppositions between the principal virtues and the capital vices which are based on mere juxtaposition. As to content, the two schemes do not match each other. The capital vices of lust and avarice, for instance, contrast with the remedial virtues of chastity and generosity, respectively, rather than with any theological or cardinal virtue; conversely, the virtues of hope and prudence are opposed to despair and foolishness rather than to any deadly sin. Medieval moral authors were well aware of the fact. Actually, the capital vices are more often contrasted with the remedial or contrary virtues in medieval moral literature than with the principal virtues, while the principal virtues are frequently accompanied by a set of mirroring vices rather than by the seven deadly sins.

Contemporary thought

Jesuit scholars Daniel J. Harrington and James F. Keenan, in their Paul and Virtue Ethics (2010), argue for seven "new virtues" to replace the classical cardinal virtues in complementing the three theological virtues, mirroring the seven earlier proposed in Bernard Lonergan's Method in Theology (1972): "be humble, be hospitable, be merciful, be faithful, reconcile, be vigilant, and be reliable".

Allegory

The Cardinal Virtues are often depicted as female allegorical figures. These were a popular subject for funerary sculpture. The attributes and names of these figures may vary according to local tradition.

Yves Decadt, a Flemish artist, has created a series of artworks titled “Falling Angels: Allegories about the 7 Sins and 7 Virtues for Falling Angels and other Curious Minds”. The series explores the topic of morality, sins, and virtues, which have dominated Western cultures for more than 2000 years. In this work, Decadt follows in the footsteps of Pieter Breughel, who made a series of sketches on the 7 sins and 7 virtues about 500 years ago. The work takes the viewer on an adventurous trip through time and across the barriers and edges of reality, mythology, religion, and culture.

The virtues in art

In many churches and artwork the Cardinal Virtues are depicted with symbolic items:

Justice: sword, balance and scales, a crown

Temperance: wheel, bridle and reins, vegetables and fish, cup, water and wine in two jugs

Fortitude: armor, club, with a lion, palm, tower, a yoke, a broken column

Prudence: book, scroll, mirror, an attacking serpent

The cardinal virtues as depicted on the tomb of Pope Clement II in Bamberg Cathedral

Iustitia (Justice), with balance and scales
Temperantia (Temperance), with water and wine in two jugs
Fortitudo (Fortitude), with a lion
Prudentia (Prudence), with a serpent

Notable depictions include sculptures on the tomb of Francis II, Duke of Brittany and the tomb of John Hotham. They were also depicted in the garden at Edzell Castle.

Tree of the knowledge of good and evil

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In Christianity and Judaism, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Tiberian Hebrew: עֵץ הַדַּעַת טוֹב וָרָע, romanized: ʿêṣ had-daʿaṯ ṭōḇ wā-rāʿ, [ʕesˤ hadaʕaθ tˤov wɔrɔʕ]; Latin: Lignum scientiae boni et mali) is one of two specific trees in the story of the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2–3, along with the tree of life. Alternatively, some scholars have argued that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is just another name for the tree of life.

In Genesis

Narrative

Genesis 2 narrates that God places the man, Adam, in a garden with trees whose fruits he may eat, but forbids him to eat from "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". God forms a woman, Eve, after this command is given. In Genesis 3, a serpent persuades Eve to eat from its forbidden fruit and she also lets Adam taste it. Consequently, God expels them from the garden.

Meaning of good and evil

The phrase in Hebrew, טוֹב וָרָע (tov wa-raʿ) literally translates as "good and evil". This may be an example of the type of figure of speech known as merism, a literary device that pairs opposite terms together in order to create a general meaning, so that the phrase "good and evil" would simply imply "everything". This is seen in the Egyptian expression "evil-good", which is normally employed to mean "everything". However, if "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" is to be understood to mean a tree whose fruit imparts knowledge of everything, this phrase does not necessarily denote a moral concept. This view is held by several scholars.

Given the context of disobedience to God, other interpretations of the implications of this phrase also demand consideration. Robert Alter emphasizes the point that when God forbids the man to eat from that particular tree, he says that if he does so, he is "doomed to die." The Hebrew behind this is in a form regularly used in the Hebrew Bible for issuing death sentences.

However, there are myriad modern scholarly interpretations regarding the term הדעת טוב ורע (Hada'at tov wa-ra "the knowledge of good and evil") in Genesis 2–3, such as wisdom, omniscience, sexual knowledge, moral discrimination, maturity, and other qualities. According to scholar Nathan French, the term likely means "the knowledge for administering reward and punishment," suggesting that the knowledge forbidden by Yahweh and yet acquired by the humans in Genesis 2–3 is the wisdom for wielding ultimate power.

Religious views

Judaism

Jewish sources suggest different possible identities for the tree: a fig tree (as fig leaves were used to clothe Adam and Eve after the sin), a grape vine (as "nothing brings wailing to the world like wine"), a stalk of wheat (as "a child does not know how to say Father and Mother until he tastes grain"), an etrog (as the description in Genesis 3:6 matches the etrog fruit's beautiful appearance, or else the etrog tree's allegedly tasty bark), or a nut tree.

In Jewish tradition, the Tree of Knowledge and the eating of its fruit represents the beginning of the mixture of good and evil together. Before that time, the two were separate, and evil had only a nebulous existence in potential. While free choice did exist before eating the fruit, evil existed as an entity separate from the human psyche, and it was not in human nature to desire it. Eating and internalizing the forbidden fruit changed this, and thus was born the yetzer hara, the evil inclination.

According to Rashi, the sin came about because Eve added an additional clause to the divine command: "Neither shall you touch it." By saying this, Eve added to YHWH's command, and thereby came to detract from it, as it is written: "Do not add to His Words" (Proverbs 30:6). However, In Legends of the Jews, it was Adam who had devoutly forbidden Eve to touch the tree even though God had only mentioned the eating of the fruit.

According to one source, Eve also fed the fruit to the animals, leading to their mortality as well.

In the Kabbalah, the sin of the Tree of Knowledge (called Cheit Eitz HaDa'at) brought about the great task of beirurim, sifting through the mixture of good and evil in the world to extract and liberate the sparks of holiness trapped therein. Since evil no longer had independent existence, it henceforth depended on holiness to draw down the Divine life-force, on whose "leftovers" it then feeds and derives existence. Once evil is separated from holiness through beirurim, its source of life is cut off, causing the evil to disappear. This is accomplished through observance of the 613 commandments in the Torah, which deal primarily with physical objects wherein good and evil are mixed together. The sin of the Tree caused God's presence (Shechinah) to depart from earth; in kabbalah, the task of beirurim rectifies the sin of the Tree and causes the Shechinah to return.

Christianity

A marble bas relief by Lorenzo Maitani on the Orvieto Cathedral, Italy, depicts Eve and the tree.

In Christian tradition, consuming the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil was the original sin committed by Adam and Eve that led to the fall of man in Genesis 3.

Augustine of Hippo taught that the "tree" should be understood both symbolically and as a real tree – similarly to Jerusalem being both a real city and a figure of Heavenly Jerusalem. Augustine underlined that the fruits of that tree were not evil by themselves, because everything that God created "was good" (Genesis 1:12). It was disobedience of Adam and Eve, who had been told by God not to eat off the tree (Genesis 2:17), that caused disorder in the creation, thus humanity inherited sin and guilt from Adam and Eve's sin.

In Western Christian art, the fruit of the tree is commonly depicted as the apple, which originated in central Asia. This depiction may have originated as a Latin pun: by eating the mālum (apple), Eve contracted malum (evil). According to the Bible, there is nothing to show the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was necessarily an apple.

Gnosticism

Uniquely, the Gnostic religion held that the tree was entirely positive or even sacred. Per this saga, it was the archons who told Adam and Eve not to eat from its fruit, before lying to them by claiming they would die after tasting it. Later in the story, an instructor is sent from the Pleroma by the aeons to save humanity and reveal gnosis. This savior does so by telling Adam and Eve that eating the fruit is the way into salvation. Examples of the narrative can be found within the Gnostic manuscripts On the Origin of the World and the Secret Book of John.

Manichaeism, which has been considered a Gnostic sect, echoes these notions as well, presenting the primordial aspect of Jesus as the instructor.

Islam

The Quran never refers to the tree as the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" but rather typically refers to it as "the tree" or (in the words of Iblis) as the "tree of immortality." Muslims believe that when God created Adam and Eve, he told them that they could enjoy everything in the Garden except this tree and so Satan appeared to them, telling them the only reason God forbade them to eat from the tree was that they would become angels or immortal.

When they ate from this tree, their nakedness appeared to them, and they began to sew together leaves from the Garden for their covering. The Quran mentions the sin as being a 'slip'. Consequently, they repented to God and asked for his forgiveness, and were forgiven. In Islamic tradition, the forbidden fruit is considered wheat or barley, not an apple as within Western Christian tradition.

In Quran Al-A'raf 27, God states:

[O] Children of Adam! Let not Satan tempt you as he brought your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their garments to show them their shameful parts. Surely he [Satan] sees you, he and his tribe, from where you see them not. We have made the Satans the friends of those who do not believe.

Similar depictions in Akkadian seal

A cylinder seal, known as the Adam and Eve cylinder seal, from post-Akkadian periods in Mesopotamia (c. 23rd – 22nd century BCE) has been linked to the Adam and Eve story. Assyriologist George Smith (1840–1876) described the seal as having two facing figures (male and female) seated on each side of a tree, holding out their hands to the fruit, while between their backs is a serpent, giving evidence that the fall of man account was known in early times of Babylonia.

The British Museum disputes this interpretation, and holds that it is a common image from the period depicting a male deity being worshipped by a woman, with no reason to connect the scene with the Book of Genesis.

Collective punishment

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Collective punishment is a punishment or sanction imposed on a group or whole community for acts allegedly perpetrated by a member or some members of that group or area, which could be an ethnic or political group, or just the family, friends and neighbors of the perpetrator, as well as entire cities and communities where the perpetrator(s) allegedly committed the crime. Because individuals who are not responsible for the acts are targeted, collective punishment is not compatible with the basic principle of individual responsibility. The punished group may often have no direct association with the perpetrator other than living in the same area and can not be assumed to exercise control over the perpetrator's actions. Collective punishment is prohibited by treaty in both international and non-international armed conflicts, more specifically Common Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and Article 4 of the Additional Protocol II.

Sources of law

Hague Conventions

The Hague Conventions are often cited for guidelines concerning the limits and privileges of an occupier's rights with respect to the local (occupied) property. One of the restrictions on the occupier's use of natural resources is the Article 50 prohibition against collective punishment protecting private property.

Geneva Conventions

According to Médecins Sans Frontières:

International law posits that no protected person may be punished for acts that he or she did not commit. It ensures that the collective punishment of a group of persons for a crime committed by an individual is forbidden...This is one of the fundamental guarantees established by the Geneva Conventions and their protocols. This guarantee is applicable not only to protected persons but to all individuals, no matter what their status, or to what category of persons they belong...

Overview

Collective responsibility

Modern legal systems usually limit criminal liability to individuals. An example of this is the prohibition on "Corruption of Blood" in the Treason Clause of the United States Constitution. Moral philosophers will usually use notions of intention or knowledge to establish individual moral responsibility. This agency based theory from Kantian ethics may not be the only way to assess responsibility. Ruth Gavison wanted the Israeli legal system to be based on the moral compass of Jewish heritage:

"I hope that in another generation, when the Jewish children of today are sitting on the bench of the Supreme Court, they will know how to express Kant's Categorical Imperative in the 'Jewish' language of Hillel the Elder. When they want to strike down collective punishment, I hope they will be able to invoke the Jewish maxim: 'Each by his own sin will die'. not just universal literature on the subject."

Deterrence

Collective liability may be effective as a deterrent, if it creates the incentive for the group to monitor the activities of other members. When collective fines are imposed on select groups of elites it can create an incentive for them to identify perpetrators but the effectiveness declines with an increase in the size of the group and their relative wealth.

Richard Posner and others consider collective fines to be the most effective type of collective punishment for deterring bad behavior when they are sufficiently costly and target those in a position to identify perpetrators.

Family punishment

Historically, punishment of family members was employed most often in the context of political crimes. In late Medieval Florence family groups could be punished collectively for treason, but not for other crimes. To preserve the Lombard law's historic mitigating impact on blood feuds an exception was made recognizing a collective responsibility for vendettas, in which case father, son and kinsmen were all held responsible. During the Qin dynasty of China (221–207 BC) treason was punishable by what is known as nine familial exterminations – the execution of the perpetrator's entire families as well as the perpetrators themselves.

Jeremy Bentham wrote of the cruelty of Corruption of Blood:

A cruel fiction of the lawyers to disguise the injustice of confiscation. The innocent grandson cannot inherit from the innocent grandfather, because his rights are corrupted and destroyed in passing through the blood of a guilty father. This corruption of blood is a fantastic idea; but there is a corruption too real in the understandings and the hearts of those who dishonor themselves by such sophisms.

Types

Collective fines

A collective fine like the weregild may create incentives for a group to identify perpetrators where they might not do so otherwise. Richard Posner and others consider collective fines to be the most effective type of collective punishment.

The frankpledge system of enforcement was by the 12th century established throughout much of the English realm. Cnut had organized the conquered peoples of England into "hundreds" and tithings, "within a hundred and under surety". Scholars do not know if the surety of Cnut's time was a collective or individual liability, or whether collective punishment was a feature of Anglo-Saxon law, before the Norman Conquest and the 12th century frankpledge system applied collective punishment to the whole tithing. The 13th century Statute of Winchester (1285) stipulated "the whole hundred ... shall be answerable" for any theft or robbery.

Destruction of houses

According to W. R. Connor "the importance of the oikos in ancient Greece, an importance that goes far beyond the needs for physical shelter and comfort, is well known". The destruction of homes is then "especially awesome and charged with symbolic as well as practical meaning."

The practice of the kataskaphai of houses is attested to by several ancient Greek sources. According to Plutarch's account of the murder of Hesiod (found in the Moralia) the house of the murderers was razed Greek: οὶκίαν κατέσκαψαν. When the Corinthians kill Cypselus they "razed the houses of the tyrants and confiscated their property", according to Nicholas of Damascus. Sources are inconsistent as to the razing of the Alcamaeonid houses. Of the many sources on the Cylonian conspiracy, only Isocrates mentions kataskaphe.

There have been a large number of home demolitions in Israel since 1967. The legal arguments center on Regulation 119(1) of the Defense Emergency Regulations, an emergency law that dates to the British occupation under the Mandate for Palestine, by which Israel claims the legal authority for home demolitions by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). In Alamarin v. IDF Commander in Gaza Strip the Israeli High Court of Justice held that the homes of Palestinians who have committed violent acts may be demolished under the Defence (Emergency) Regulations, even if the residence has other inhabitants who are unconnected to the crime. The counterargument against the validity of the regulation is two-fold: firstly, that it should have been properly revoked by 1967 as an institution of the former colonial rule; secondly, that it is incompatible with Israel's modern treaty obligations.

Targeting women

Some scholars consider the rape of German women by the Red Army during the Russian advance into Germany in 1945 towards the end of World War II as a form of collective punishment. Women were also targeted as a collective punishment for collaboration in Vichy France where photographs were taken of women stripped and paraded through the streets of Paris. A prostitute accused of serving the Germans was kicked to death.

Responding to the 2014 murder of three Israeli teenagers kidnapped near the settlement of Alon Shvut, Israeli professor Mordechai Kedar said: "The only thing that can deter terrorists, like those who kidnapped the children and killed them, is the knowledge that their sister or their mother will be raped. It sounds very bad, but that's the Middle East."

Women are frequently targeted in the Kashmir conflict "to punish and humiliate the entire community". Even in well publicized cases like the Kunan Poshpora mass rape no action has been taken against perpetrators.

History

18th century

The Intolerable Acts were seen as a collective punishment of the Massachusetts Colony for the Boston Tea Party. Frederick North and the British Parliament supported collective punishment to deter any further challenges to their imperial authority by undermining support for what they saw as a quarrelsome minority in Massachusetts.

Collective fines were imposed on Edinburgh as punishment for the Porteous riots during which Captain John Porteous was lynched.

19th century

The principle of collective punishment was laid out by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman in his Special Field Order 120, November 9, 1864, which laid out the rules for his "March to the sea" in the American Civil War:

V. To army corps commanders alone is entrusted the power to destroy mills, houses, cotton-gins, etc..., and for them this general principle is laid down: In districts and neighborhoods where the army is unmolested, no destruction of such property should be permitted; but should guerrillas or bushwhackers molest our march, or should the inhabitants burn bridges, obstruct roads, or otherwise manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless according to the measure of such hostility.

The British (in the Second Boer War) and the Germans (in the Franco-Prussian War) justified such actions as being in accord with the laws of war then in force.

20th century

World War I

The mass shootings of Nicholas Romanov's distant relatives after his abdication in 1917 and the shooting of the Romanov family themselves in July of the following year, 1918, were two such examples of this during World War I.

World War II

By Germany

During the Nazi occupation of Poland, the Germans applied collective responsibility: any kind of help given to a Jewish person was punishable by death, and that not only for the rescuers themselves but also for their families. This was widely publicized by the Germans. Communities were held collectively responsible for the purported Polish counter-attacks against the invading German troops. Mass executions of roundup (Polish: łapanka) hostages were conducted every single day during the Wehrmacht advance across Poland in September 1939 and thereafter.

Germany also practiced a form of collective punishment against German families. Called Sippenhaft, the family members of Germans who were accused of acting against the state could be punished along with the accused.

Collective punishment was often brutally used during the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia. The Germans implemented a strategy of reprisals, killing one hundred civilians for every German soldier killed. This was intended to drain support for the partisan movement, resulting in entire regions of Yugoslavia becoming unpopulated. The tactic backfired, as once a German soldier was killed almost the entire local population joined the partisans as the alternative was certain execution by the Germans. This was employed to great effect by the Yugoslav resistance under Josip Broz Tito.

Against Germany

The expulsion of German speaking population groups after World War II by the Soviet Union, Poland and Czechoslovakia represent one of the greatest examples of collective punishment in terms of the number of victims. The goal was to punish the Germans; the Allies declared them collectively guilty of Nazi war crimes. In the US and UK the ideas of German collective guilt and collective punishment originated not with the American and British people, but on higher policy levels. Not until late in the war did the US public assign collective responsibility to the German people.

Soviet Union

Joseph Stalin's mass deportations of many nationalities of the USSR to remote regions (including the Chechens, Crimean Tatars, Volga Germans and many others) exemplifies officially orchestrated collective punishment.

Stalin used the partial removal of potentially trouble-making ethnic groups as a technique consistently during his career: Poles (1939–1941 and 1944–45), Romanians (1941 and 1944–1953), Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians (1941 and 1945–1949), Volga Germans (1941), Chechens, and Ingushes (1944). Shortly before, during and immediately after World War II, Stalin conducted a series of deportations on a huge scale which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union. Between 1941 and 1949 the Soviet authorities deported an estimated nearly 3.3 million people to Siberia and to the Central Asian republics.

The deportations started with Poles from Belarus, Ukraine and European Russia (see Poles in the former Soviet Union) in the period 1932–1936. Koreans in the Russian Far East were deported in 1937 (see Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union). After the Soviet invasion of Poland (17 September 1939) following the corresponding German invasion (1 September 1939) that marked the start of World War II in Europe, the Soviet Union annexed eastern parts (the so-called Kresy) of the Second Polish Republic. During 1939–1941 the Soviet regime deported 1.45 million inhabitants of this area, of whom 63% were Poles and 7% were Jews. Similar events followed in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania following their incorporation into the Soviet union in 1940. More than 200,000 people are estimated to have been deported from the Baltic in 1940–1953. 10% of the entire adult Baltic population was deported or sent to labor camps. (See June deportation, Operation Priboi, Soviet deportations from Estonia.) Volga Germans and seven (overwhelmingly Turkic or non-Slavic) nationalities of the Crimea and the northern Caucasus were deported: the Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, Chechens,

India

The 1984 anti-Sikh riots (alternatively called the 1984 Sikh Massacre), a riot directed against Sikhs in India by anti-Sikh mobs in response to the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards, was an example of collective punishment. The episode resulted in more than 3000 deaths. India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) expressed the opinion that the acts of violence were well-organized, with support from the officials in the Delhi police and in the central government at the time, then headed by Indira Gandhi's son, Rajiv Gandhi. When asked about the riots, Rajiv, a Congress party member who was sworn in as the Prime Minister after his mother's death, said "When a big tree falls, the earth shakes".

Cold War

United Kingdom

In several armed conflicts the United Kingdom engaged during the 1950s, collective punishment was utilized as a tactic to suppress various insurgencies such as the Malayan Emergency, the Mau Mau Uprising, and the Cyprus Emergency. In 1951, the British government announced plans which stipulated that non-combatants found supporting the Malayan National Liberation Army would be subject to 'collective punishment'. During the Mau Mau Uprising, the colonial administration also utilised collective punishment as a tactic against the Kenya Land and Freedom Army, while in Cyprus (during the Cyprus Emergency) the British authorities adopted a tactic of home evictions and business closures in regions where British personnel had been murdered in order to obtain information about the identities of the murderers.

Azerbaijan

Black January was a massacre of civilians committed by the Red Army in the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic in 1990. The Human Rights Watch report entitled "Black January in Azerbaijan" states: "Indeed, the violence used by the Soviet Army on the night of January 19–20 was so out of proportion to the resistance offered by Azerbaijanis as to constitute an exercise in collective punishment."

South Korea

Collective punishment in Korea was officially abolished in 1894 under the Joseon Kingdom, and was only fully abolished in practice on August 22, 1980, after the end of the Park Chung-hee regime. Following this a clause prohibiting collective punishment was added to the Constitution of the Fifth Republic.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Israel's use of collective punishment measures, such as movement restrictions, shelling of residential areas, mass arrests, and the destruction of public health infrastructure violates Articles 33 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. Article 33 reads in part:

No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited

Collective punishment of Palestinians also can be traced back to British mandatory techniques in suppressing the 1936–1939 revolt and has been reintroduced and in effect since the early days of the occupation, and was denounced by Israel Shahak as early as 1974. Notoriety for the practice arose in 1988 when, in response to the killing of a suspected collaborator in the village, Israeli forces shut down Qabatiya, arrested 400 of the 7,000 inhabitants, bulldozed the homes of people suspected of involvement, cut all of its telephone lines, banned the importation of any form of food into the village or the export of stone from its quarries to Jordan, shutting off all contact with the outside world for almost 5 weeks (24 February – 3 April). In 2016 Amnesty International stated that the various measures taken in the commercial and cultural heart of Hebron over 20 years of collective punishment have made life so difficult for Palestinians that thousands of businesses and residents have been forcibly displaced, enabling Jewish settlers to take over more properties.

21st century

Israel

The current blockade of Gaza has been widely criticized as a form of collective punishment against the Palestinian population. International humanitarian law prohibits collective punishment under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to which Israel is a party. Critics argue that the blockade restricts the movement of people and goods, including essential supplies such as food, medicine, and construction materials, severely impacting the daily lives and humanitarian conditions of Gaza's residents.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has described the blockade as a violation of international law, stating that it constitutes a form of collective punishment against the 2.2 million people living in Gaza. Similarly, reports commissioned by the United Nations have highlighted the disproportionate impact of the blockade on civilians, with widespread implications for healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

Various human rights organizations, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have condemned the blockade as part of a broader policy of punitive measures against Palestinians. These organizations have called for an end to the blockade, asserting that it collectively punishes the civilian population for actions they have not individually committed.

Additionally, Israeli military operations in Gaza have been accused of employing measures that amount to collective punishment. For instance, demolitions of homes, targeting of infrastructure, and restrictions on fuel and electricity supplies have further exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Critics argue that these actions violate principles of proportionality and necessity under international law, disproportionately affecting civilians rather than addressing specific security concerns.

Israeli officials, however, maintain that the blockade is a necessary security measure to prevent the smuggling of weapons and materials that could be used by Hamas and other militant groups. While this rationale has been recognized by some states, others have called for alternative measures that do not harm the civilian population.

The debate over the legality and morality of the blockade continues to draw international scrutiny, with many advocating for immediate relief to Gaza's humanitarian crisis and a reassessment of policies that affect civilians indiscriminately.

Eritrea and Ethiopia

An anonymous former member of the Transitional Government of Tigray claimed that Ethiopia and Eritrea used the destruction of the Tigrayan economy as "a tactic to defeat the enemy", arguing they succeeded in taking the region "back 40 years"; Noé Hochet-Bodin of Le Monde described this as an act of "collective punishment". On 27 May 2021, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robert F. Godec made the argument that the EDF and ENDF had enacted "[what] amounts to the collective punishment of the people of Tigray" through a "campaign of unremitting violence and destruction".

Beginning in mid-2022, and escalating after mobilization in September that same year, Eritrea engaged in a mass conscription campaign. Human Rights Watch reported that families of those who wished to avoid the draft became targets of collective punishment, with government authorities subjecting them to arbitrary detention and forced evictions from their homes.

North Korea

In North Korea, political prisoners are sent to the kwalliso concentration camps along with their relatives.North Korea's political penal labor colonies, transliterated kwalliso or kwan-li-so, constitute one of three forms of political imprisonment in the country, the other two being what Hawk (2012) translates as "short-term detention/forced-labor centers" and "long-term prison labor camps" for misdemeanor and felony offences respectively. In total, there are an estimated 150,000 to 200,000 political prisoners housed within the North Korean imprisonment system. In contrast to these other systems, the condemned are sent there without any form of judicial process as are their immediate three generations of family members as kin punishment. North Korea's kwalliso consist of a series of sprawling encampments measuring kilometers long and kilometers wide. The number of these encampments has varied over time. They are located mainly in the valleys between high mountains, mostly in the northern provinces of North Korea. There are between 5,000 and 50,000 prisoners per kwalliso, totaling perhaps some 150,000 to 200,000 prisoners throughout North Korea. The kwalliso are usually surrounded at their outer perimeters by barbed-wire fences punctuated with guard towers and patrolled by heavily armed guards. The encampments include self-contained closed "village" compounds for single persons, usually the alleged wrongdoers, and other closed, fenced-in "villages" for the extended families of the wrongdoers.

North Korea sanctions severely limit the import of essential goods such as food, medical supplies, and fuel, which exacerbates the chronic hardships faced by millions of civilians. For instance, restrictions on agricultural imports and fertilizers undermine food production, leading to widespread malnutrition and food insecurity. The UN Food Program reported that 10 million North Koreans, or 40% of the population, were food insecure due to systemic issues worsened by sanctions. Similarly, bans on medical equipment and pharmaceuticals hinder access to healthcare, disproportionately affecting vulnerable groups like children, the elderly, and pregnant women. Humanitarian organizations, including Amnesty International, have criticized sanctions for delaying or blocking essential humanitarian aid.

These outcomes are not incidental but are foreseeable consequences of the sanctions regime, as the impact is felt most acutely by civilians rather than the ruling elite who remain insulated from the economic hardship through control of illicit trade networks and state resources.

Pakistan

On May 20, 2008, the Pakistan Army conducted collective punishment against a village called Spinkai, located in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. The operation was called 'zalzala', which is Arabic for earthquake. At first, the Pakistan Army swept through with helicopter gunships, artillery and tanks. After four days of heavy fighting, 25 militants and six soldiers died. The rest of the militants retreated up the valley. After the capture of the village the army discovered bomb factories, detonation-ready suicide jackets and schools for teenage suicide bombers.

The Pakistan Army immediately decided to punish the village for harboring the Taliban and allowing the militants to operate in and from the village to conduct further terror attacks in Pakistan. Bulldozers and explosives experts turned Spinkai's bazaar into a mile-long pile of rubble. Petrol stations, shops, and even parts of the hospital were leveled or blown up. The villagers were forbidden from returning to their homes.

South Africa

South Africa still retains the Apartheid-era law of common purpose, by which those who make up part of a group can be punished for the crimes of other group members, even if they were not themselves actively involved. In August 2012 this came to public attention when 270 miners were threatened with prosecution for participating in a demonstration. During the demonstration at the Marikana mine, 34 miners were shot by police. Many of the miners were armed. When prosecutors said they would pursue charges against other miners who were part of the protest, there was a public outcry.

Syria

Throughout most of Syria's ongoing civil war, collective punishment has been a recurring method used by the Syrian government to quell opposition cities and suburbs throughout the country, whereby entire cities are besieged, shelled, and destroyed if that city is deemed as pro-opposition.

Upon retaking the capital Damascus after the 2012 Battle of Damascus, the Syrian government began a campaign of collective punishment against Sunni suburbs in and around the capital which had supported Free Syrian Army presence in their neighborhoods.

In opposition-controlled cities and districts in Aleppo Province and Aleppo city, reports indicate that the Syrian government attacked civilians at bread bakeries with artillery rounds and rockets, with the reports indicating that the bakeries were shelled indiscriminately. Human Rights Watch said these are war crimes, as the only military targets were the few rebels manning the bakeries, and that dozens of civilians were killed.

In Idlib province in the northwest of the country, entire cities were shelled and bombed for sheltering opposition activists and rebels, with the victims mostly civilians, along with heavy financial losses.

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