Torture - Softcover

"After 9/11, popular culture and some pseudo-intellectual arguments have undermined the universal moral condemnation of torture we could once count on.?Donatella di Cesare dissects these false positions one by one.?Her book makes a wonderful contribution to the legal, ethical and political debates about torture because it highlights the radical immorality and unscientific basis of the myths they create about the benefits of torture in 'keeping us safe.'" Juan Mendez, Professor of Human Rights Law at the American University and former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment "Donatella Di Cesare is one of the most important voices in contemporary European philosophy.? Her book?is a darkly knowing, lucid, and relentless philosophical primer on torture in the age of terrorism.? If human dignity is to survive these bleak times the fierce lessons of Di Cesare's study will need to be absorbed and furthered." Jay Bernstein, New School for Social Research "An important study of barbarism calls for citizens to be vigilant and to resist." Times Higher Education

Torture is not as universally condemned as it once was. From Guant namo and Abu Ghraib prisons to the death of Giulio Regeni, countless recent cases have shocked public opinion. But if we want to defend the human dignity that torture violates, simple indignation is not enough. In this important book, Donatella Di Cesare provides a critical perspective on torture in all its dimensions. She seeks to capture the peculiarity of an extreme and methodical violence where the tormentor calculates and measures out pain so that he can hold off the victim's death, allowing him to continue to exercise his sovereign power. For the victim, being tortured is like experiencing his own death while he is still alive. Torture is a threat wherever the defenceless find themselves in the hands of the strong: in prisons, in migrant camps, in nursing homes, in centres for the disabled and in institutions for minors. This impassioned book will appeal to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory as well as to anyone committed to defending human rights as universal and inviolable.