Maybe they are a form of institutionalized and ritualized revenge, without corresponding neatly to real bads. One might alternatively consider and perhaps reconstruct the concept of bad, while retaining the idea that punishments are essentially bads inflicted for wrongs done. One might conceive of bad things as not necessarily connected with negative experience, but rather as events which would deprive one of good things one would otherwise have had. Then, although death would not be bad in the sense of leading to negative experiences, it could be bad in depriving one of future life. Whether one reacts to the Socratic idea by criticizing the argument that the death penalty is not a punishment, by reconceiving the nature of punishment, or rethinking the notion of bad, this should place thinking about the death penalty in a new light.
Philosophical argumentation is more often the beginning of deep reflection than the end.
Stephen Rosenbaum is a Professor of Philosophy at Illinois State University, associated with Illinois State University since 1971. He has published a number of articles, including prominent papers on metaphysical and ethical issues associated with death, and is currently working on the development of contemporary versions of ancient ethical theories focused on virtue. On a National Endowment for the Humanities grant he completed a book manuscript on ancient ideas about death, which inspired the ideas in this essay.