Torture and Moral Integrity: A Philosophical Enquiry
Matthew H. Kramer - Oxford University Press, 2014 Anteprima del libro
Torture and Moral Integrity is about the
wrongness of torture and the nature of morality. It discusses multiple types of
torture with great philosophical acuity and it seeks to explain why
interrogational torture and other types of torture are always and everywhere
morally wrong. At the same time, it rigorously plumbs the general structure of
morality and the intricacies of moral conflicts and it probes some of the chief
grounds for the moral illegitimacy of various modes of conduct. It
sophisticatedly defends a deontological conception of morality against some
subtle critiques that have been mounted during the past few decades by
proponents of consequentialism.
The book tackles a concrete moral problem: a
problem that has been heatedly debated during recent years in the governmental
and military institutions of many countries as well as in academic circles. At
the same time it tackles some very abstract issues in moral and political
philosophy. Moreover, as becomes apparent at numerous junctures, the abstract
ruminations and the concrete prescriptions are closely connected: Kramer's
recommendations concerning the legal consequences of the perpetration of torture
by public officials or private individuals, for example, are based squarely on
his more abstract accounts of the nature of torture and the nature of morality.
His philosophical reflections on the structure of morality are the vital
background for his approach to torture, and his approach to torture is a natural
outgrowth of those philosophical reflections
