PHIL 201 Philosophy and Contemporary Ideas

Par 1

Part 2

For your reply, locate a member of your group with whom you disagree and tell him/her why you disagree (in at least 200 words). The disagreement could be over which view he/she took, or his/her understanding of the other views. Focus on the ethical concepts. 

Torture is defined as an act of administering harsh punishment on an individual or a group to ensure they provide what is asked out of them (Rasmussen et al.,2015). Torture has often been regarded as a negative approach of getting information in most law enforcement and government working agencies. The use of torture is very prevalent in the wartime situations examples of which were seen during the Iraq war when the prisoners were horribly tortured.

These issues bring out a major question regarding the ethics and the morality of this practice and questioning its use in the real life scenarios. There may be strict criticism to the use of torture in prisons or war situations but the ethics of torture will be studied in the purview of four philosophical theories; the utilitarian theory, Kantian Theory of ethics, Virtue ethics and  the Christian philosophy.

The utilitarian theory according to Holmes, (2007), states that if hurting one person will save the life of the millions it can be done it focuses on benefit of maximum population at the cost of the lives of a few people. The utilitarian theory focuses on the greater good of majority of the masses and torture of a single person to save the lives of a number of people is considered to be correct in this theory (Holmes, 2007). The duty based ethics of Kant focuses on the following of the duty as per the rules as the primary ethic of the individual (Vaughn, 2015). A person torturing another in this scenario is doing his duty and following the orders given to him to save the lives of a number of people may not seem wrong to such a person. The issue of torture in the Virtue ethics theory focuses on the effectiveness of the emotions of the person in justifying the torture. According to this theory to save a number of people, torturing someone may be ethically correct but still may hurt the virtuousness of the torturer (Russell, 2013). The Christian principle of ethics focuses on the honor of action during the times of war or any other situation. The Christian principle based ethics are focused on peace for all individuals and no actions to hurt the people without reason. Therefore, in the case of any scenario, this principle condones torture and the follower of this ethics will condone all forms of torture (Crooks, 2015).

The action of torturing a terrorist should not be question for morality or ethics as it is a duty to be done for the welfare of the whole society rather than for any personal benefit. While torturing a terrorist the utilitarian theory should be followed as, it will reinforce the officers to continue in case of any doubt. In all other war like scenarios, the ethics and the human rights of the soldiers can be considered to ensure the proper behavior with the prisoners of war. This is done because the soldiers try to save the civilians while fighting the war. On the other hand the terrorist have no moralistic ethics to save anyone, instead they focus on inflicting the maximum harm on the society. Therefore, in a way in torturing a terrorist, a soldier is not doing anything, which is ethically wrong in the purview of compassion. No moralistic attitude of the philosophies can counter the human right of the survival of the majority of the people.

Counter Argument to the Christian Theory

The Christian theory of philosophy follows the morals of the Christian morals of compassion and love, which cannot be put into a situation like terrorism. The terrorism in the society focuses on just hurting the people and they do not think about the harm they are doing to the society.  The torturing of the terrorists may be criticized by the Christian philosophy, which is based on forgiveness (English, 2013). The criticism of torture of such individual neither is nor morally correct, as the religion should not put should the lives of the majority of people into danger to save the lives of a few people. On the other hand, the Christian theory focuses on forgiveness of the individuals, which is of no avail in dealing with the terrorists. The Christian philosophy may not allow torture but the terrorists who are smart may not give away the information in any way. Moreover, when an individual is pressed with the burden of getting information, which may have the life of a number of people at stake, one might not have the patience and the ingeniousness of devising measures to get that information out of the perpetrator.

References

Crooks, R. H. (2015). Introduction to Christian Ethics. Routledge.