Torture

[ajnovak]

Torture is the opposite of a trial. A trial uses evidence to seek punishment, and the punishment is legitimized by the evidence presented. Torture uses punishment in pursuit of evidence, and it is the tortured individual's act of confession/betrayal against the regime that is necessary in the mind of the torturer to legitimize the act of torture

Comments

[pellee]

I thought a lot of the ideas that she presents in that book have been discredited, or maybe I am not paying attention?

[ajnovak]

I know absolutely nothing about the topic other than the chapter I read, I confess. In its own context (and not in the context of the mass of literature on the subject), I found it to be quite interesting. The bulk of the chapter, however, is so academicky and dense that it is hard to get through, so maybe I am just left with the general impression that she is smarter than me. X-D

[redlion1904]

The last is a common criticism of Scarry and indeed her entire school of philosophy..."postmodernism"* is in a bit of trouble lately. It doesn't seem to have a vocabulary suited to the current political realities and as such it's nihilism and emptiness are being exposed for what they are...

*Scare quotes used to differentiate the postmodernist school of thought from any other philosophy that, in its rejection of modernism, is de facto postmodernist (e.g., neo-Aristotelianism).

No expert, but...

[redlion1904]

I believe it's her move from "philosophy of torture" to "philosophy of war" that people think is illegitimate.

Full disclosure: I'm not impressed by her aesthetics either, but I do consider her on the side of the angels.