why human beings punish those who commit offenses
The text talks about why human beings punish those who commit offenses. It states that punishment is only meaningful if it is given with the goal of preventing future offenses. This is achieved by preventing the person and those who see getting punished for repeating it in the future. These are quotes from Socrates. However, it also states that punishment should not be given by focusing in the past as that would just be a vendetta with no meaningful outcome. According to Socrates, those who seek punishment to get back at people are not human.
The text has a lot of truth about why punishments are given in today’s society. The law courts hand sentences to criminals to prevent them from repeating them in the future. This is the core message that Socrates said. The same is applied to individuals. For example, a person will ground his/her child so that he/she learns from her mistakes. A community will also deny certain individuals privileges so as to teach them vital lessons. That is not to deny that people also punish for the wrong reasons. It is a factor that should be considered. All in all, the majority of society abides by Socrates’ principles.
As with everything else, there is always a grey area. In this case, these are the people who give punishment as retribution, as opposed to preventing future occurrences. Socrates likened such people to wild beasts. The majority of society, though, follows the rationally motivated punishment discussed above. Therefore, I believe that the city as a whole has sufficient capacity for rationally motivated punishment. However, those who do not follow this principle can achieve the same mindset through sufficient education.