Philosophy Now Forum

This thread came to life from thought I put into the 'Analyzing the UN Definition of Torture' thread. In the 'UN Definition' thread we saw that the UN, by its own rationale, conceded that some acts of intentionally inflicting severe pain on someone were not acts of torture. We could then look at its...

I want to say that this thread, this exercise in trying to unpack, or simply fully understand, the UN's conception of torture is far from a polished work. Writing a philosophy paper on this topic would require a lot of rephrasing, a lot of following certain trains of thoughts further, and elucidatin...

Let's pick up where we left off. We were trying to answer the question of how each of the purpose clauses, the particular circumstances, make an intentional inflicting of severe pain an act of torture. The answer with regard to discrimination, coercion, and intimidation seems simple enough: none of ...

Back to real philosophy. I will pick up where I left off. So how does the UN decide which cases of inflicting severe pain are cases of torture and which cases of inflicting severe pain are not torture? It'll help to look, again, at the 6 Cases they list in which inflicting severe pain counts as tort...

I'm not wasting my time explaining things that are irrelevant. I don't care what you think. I don't care what "winning" point you think you've made. Philosophy people will understand who's right, here, and that's all I care about. I don't write for morons to agree with me. I'd be disappoin...

So you went from claiming that CIA water boarding was part of the thread topic to now saying that's it's not irrelevant to mention it. In other words, you were wrong. I accept your apology, tyro.

None of those statements show or remotely suggest that 'CIA water boarding' is part of the topic. Dude, you're not good at this. This is the last time I'll entertain your irrelevant comment about CIA water boarding on this thread. Question: Can we analyze the UN Definition of Torture without discuss...

As said before, I'm willing to set aside of the topic the water boarding issue. But that does not mean you didn't bring it to topic in the first place, perhaps unintentionally, but the fact is that you could have just said that your focus was "to analyze a particular definition of torture"...

Actually, your OP clearly states that your focus is "to analyze a particular definition of torture often invoked in arguments against CIA water boarding", so at least you're bringing up your motivation to analyze the UN's definition of torture, which then becomes part of the topic. Well, ...

Summing up where we've gotten after my long-winded posts. The salient conclusion is that the UN definition doesn't include a clause about people forfeiting their right to consent or not consent to certain actions in lieu of being active participants in an immoral or criminal activity . The italicize...

I would think you'd enjoy it the way you keep following me around.

I don't know about that debate, but if I were making the case against the CIA water boarding practice by invoking the UN definition, I would just simply point at the fact that the United States is signatory of the UN Convention Against Torture, so it has accepted the definition of torture of the UN...

"severe pain" seems vague Not when you're experiencing it, it doesn't. Are you sure you're a genius? It's just that you sound more like an idiot. LOL...you idiots expose yourselves every time you post something. Notice again how you explain nothing. Just another pronouncement from the Lob...

Back to the actual topic. Last I wrote I left off with this: The UN's answer would apparently be: 'You are causing this severe pain in order to obtain information.' And while that seems coherent, a deeper look will reveal that something is terribly amiss with that answer. So what is amiss with this ...

Apparently my only option is just to write for myself. Onward... In trying to understand the UN's CONCEPTION OF TORTURE, I have not found it easy to pinpoint where it fails and why it fails. At this point, I lean strongly towards it failing, but I'll reserve final judgment until I can unpack this co...