Torture

Abstract

The idea of “torture” plays a strategic role in our ethical reasoning, being often identified as the limit case of savage human behavior, unspeakable agony, and even political injustice. That torture holds this place in our collective imagination finds affirmation in the everyday use of the term “torture” as a figure of speech, when certain personal experiences are too readily labelled as a form of torture, as in the case of a visit to the dentist or a university exam. Less figuratively, the term “torture” can be used to bestow the most intransigent condemnation of a certain act – for example, when (rightly or wrongly) rape is equated to torture (McGlynn 2008; see Rape).