Torture and Just War

Bibliographic Data

ID14760372
AuthorsDarrell Cole (Drew University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume40
Issue1
Pages26-51
Publication date2012-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religious Ethics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0384-9694 • E-ISSN: 1467-9795
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/j.1467-9795.2011.00507.x
OpenAlexW1513161338
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited25

I offer an argument for why torture, as an act of state‐sponsored force to gain information crucial to the well‐being of the common good, should be considered as a tactic of war, and therefore scrutinized in terms of just war theory. I argue that, for those committed to the justifiability of the use of force, most of the popular arguments against all acts of torture are unpersuasive because the logic behind them would forbid equally any act of mutilating or killing in battle. I will also argue that looking at torture through the perspective of the just war tradition forces us to place strictures on the practice that make it hard to justify, helps us to see why torture should never be legalized, helps us to clarify when circumstances might justify torture, and suggests what sort of character is required to recognize when those circumstances have occurred

Argument (complex analysis · Battle · Character (mathematics · Criminology · Human rights · Just war theory · Law and economics · Perspective (graphical · Political science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · State (computer science · Torture · Computer Science · Global Peace and Security Dynamics · History · Law · Medicine · Torture, Ethics, and Law · War, Ethics, and Justification

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