The perception of the human being has changed drastically since the Enlightenment era, and is closely related to the problem of free will. Free will is accepted as the foundation of the notion that human beings can be held responsible for their own actions. The German idealism has been a venue for the clash of absolutist and relativist penal theories. As the solutions offered by relativist theories using the method of special prevention did not match the expectancy, the neoclassicist movement resorted to the theories of Kant and Hegel, and to the aims of retribution and general prevention. The article deals with the question of applicability of absolutist penal theories historically emerging from the German idealism.