Punishment as a Socio-Cultural and Spiritual-Moral Phenomenon

Purpose. The article is devoted to the analysis of the phenomenon of punishment as a complex phenomenon of reality, which combines the most important postulates of the development and improvement of personality, society and the state, based on cultural values and norms. It acts as an important regulator of the external and internal components of human behavior in society, bearing moral guidelines – the dignity of personality, humanism, justice, mercy. Tasks. The author has to identify socio-cultural and spiritual and moral features in the phenomenon of punishment by understanding the value-normative component of society when applying negative sanctions to the violator (mutual transition from social to cultural, the use of the Talion principle and the Golden Rule of Morality). Methodology. The basis of the presented research is formed by comparative, phenomenological, cultural and philosophical research methods that allow us to reveal the essence and features of the interdisciplinary nature of the phenomenon of punishment in the diversity and multidimensional nature of its underlying values and norms. Results. The results of the work are that the author comes to the conclusion that the phenomenon of punishment contains spiritual, moral and socio-cultural elements. At the interdisciplinary level, it is possible to address the deep foundations of the external and internal behavioral act of a person manifested in society. The scope of the results. The results of the study can be applied in the field of socio-political design and forecasting.