Two narratives of torture

Abstract

This article is about two different narratives or accounts of torture. Each narrative signifies a certain view about the legality and wisdom of employing torture and coercion in interrogation. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the use of torture and coercion has become a topic of genuine debate, despite a sizable corpus of domestic and international law prohibiting those very practices. The first narrative of torture is centered on the ticking bomb scenario, the hypothetical that has frequently been deployed in the academic arena to overcome the absolutist nature of the legal prohibition on torture. Since 9/11, the ticking bomb scenario has also appeared in various official government documents and statements that assert the legality of torture and coercive interrogation techniques. It has also been replicated in popular culture, the most notable example being Fox's counterterrorism drama, 24. A second narrative of torture challenges the validity and usefulness of the ticking bomb scenario. Various academic commentators have unpacked the assumptions underlying the scenario. Certain government actors, most notably the Federal Bureau of Investigation and military lawyers, have consistently rejected the logic of the ticking bomb scenario, and opposed the use of torture and coercion in interrogation. This second narrative also has a popular culture representative in the form of Sci-Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica. Thus, the same battles that have been fought over the treatment of detainees in the "war on terror" in the legal and political arenas by real world actors since 9/11 are also being fought at a discursive level in popular culture.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

  • Only published works are available at libraries.

Similar books and articles

The Moral Justifiability of Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment.Michael Davis - 2005 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 19 (2):161-178.
Tragic Choices.Christopher W. Tindale - 2005 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 19 (2):209-222.
The Defense of Necessity and Powers of the Government.Youngjae Lee - 2009 - Criminal Law and Philosophy 3 (2):133-145.
Dirty hands and the romance of the ticking bomb terrorist: a Humean account.Christopher J. Finlay - 2011 - Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy 14 (4):421-442.
A utilitarian argument against torture interrogation of terrorists.Jean Maria Arrigo - 2004 - Science and Engineering Ethics 10 (3):543-572.
Tortured Ethics.Matthew R. Silliman & David Kenneth Johnson - 2007 - Social Philosophy Today 23:211-222.
Tortured Knowledge.Eric M. Rovie - 2009 - International Journal of Applied Philosophy 23 (2):315-333.

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
51 (#277,782)

6 months
1 (#1,042,085)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references