The absolute violation : why torture must be prohibited / Richard Matthews.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Matthews, Richard (Assistant professor of philosophy)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Torture.

Torture--Moral and ethical aspects.

Physical Description:

xi, 238 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Montréal : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2008]

Summary:

State torture has found an increasing number of defenders in law, philosophy, and public policy. Their arguments often ignore the empirical literature on torture, thus overlooking the damage it does, as well as accepting the illusory benefits it promises.

Richard Matthews challenges the increasing acceptability of state-sponsored torture interrogation, repudiating any possible justifications. He confronts its various supporters - ticking time bomb and tragic choice theorists, utilitarians, legal scholars - and draws from philosophy, medicine, psychiatry, survivor and torturer narratives, history, feminism, the experience of working intelligence officials, anthropology, and game theory to illustrate that no moral justification for torture can be supported.

The Absolute Violation is essential reading for philosophers, lawyers, judges, human rights activists, military, police and intelligence officers, medical professionals, and anyone who is interested in forcefully countering the recent trend towards moral justification of torture.

Contents:

1 Understanding Torture 31

2 What about the Ticking Bomb? 68

3 Why Utilitarians Must Oppose Torture 100

4 Torture, Tragic Choices, and Dirty Hands 139

5 On Neither Excusing nor Justifying Torture 186.

Notes:

Includes index.

Includes bibliographical references: pages [221]-232.

ISBN:

9780773534223

0773534229

9780773534513

0773534512

OCLC:

213400253