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    Toward a Political Ethics of Torture

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    Issue Date
    2015-08-31
    Author
    Torrente, Steven
    Publisher
    University of Kansas
    Format
    151 pages
    Type
    Dissertation
    Degree Level
    Ph.D.
    Discipline
    Political Science
    Rights
    Copyright held by the author.
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    Abstract
    The current torture ethics debate comprises a dispute about the moral status of torture and a parallel dispute about the right way to do ethics. The first dispute receives much attention, while the the second dispute is obscured or even suppressed. As a result, scholars have developed highly idiosyncratic approaches to torture ethics that cannot be meaningfully compared. These moral evaluations of torture rest on contrary assumptions about the definition of torture, the right way to do ethics, and the facts of the situation, and therefore they are not really answers to the same moral question. I respond to this dilemma by analyzing torture ethics as a social rather than ethical problem. I use Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to reimagine two things: what kind of conceptual object torture is, and the structure of the social group that is considering torture. This approach puts disagreeable actors on equal footing, based on their real associations. It does not force an unjustifiable resolution to their normative and metaethical differences. I then use the controversies in the torture ethics debate as raw material for developing new descriptions of torture that do not re-engage proprietary ethical frameworks. These advances make possible a more inclusive and robust political ethics of torture.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/19556
    Collections
    • Political Science Dissertations and Theses [135]
    • Dissertations [4320]

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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