Preview

Michael Levin The Case Of Torture Summary

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
353 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Michael Levin The Case Of Torture Summary
“The Case of Torture”

“The Case of Torture” written by, Michael Levin is a an essay about how torture is valuable, that “the lives of the innocent people must be saved even at the price of hurting the one who endangered them”. Pg. 360 The other gives two great scenarios, in my opinion that would permit for torture. The first incident he gave an example of was; suppose a terrorist planted a bomb at an important monument and said the bomb was going to go off at a certain time. Say for instance we got the terrorist before the bomb detonated. In this case we need to find out where the bomb is and how to deactivate it. Do we wait for the lawyer or find get the information out of him by any means necessary. So, that we may safe million of innocent

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In The Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal: Sources of Sadism by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, Szegedy-Maszak says that rationalizing the stark change in mentality of the young American soldiers who kept watch over the Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison would be a very challenging task. Some may blame inexperience or dereliction of duty by commanding officers. Others may say that stress caused by living in a war zone was responsible. However, it has become clear that no single reason would be sufficient to completely explain the events at Abu Ghraib prison.…

    • 779 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The main idea of this passage is to expose the irrelevance of the ticking bomb scenario for the topic of torture. The article as a whole does not take a direct stand for or against or torture, however, it slightly attacks the areas for torture. In addition, with a vast amount of reasoning and evidence the authors cover all areas relating to the topic of torture such as morals and humanity being the most controversial questioned issues in reference to the…

    • 927 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Heymann vs. Dershowitz

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages

    As the professor mentions, the fear of being prosecuted for torturing a prisoner restrains the officials for now, but if there existed a warrant that justifies their actions, all the other legal, and moreover – humane methods such as wiretapping and emergency searches would be put aside. Once the circumstances are defined – we are sure there is an activated bomb, the suspect is aware of where it is, there is no chance to get it moved in the meantime and so on, the torture would become the ordinary practice.…

    • 899 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Boom! Suppose a terrorist in custody has hidden a bomb in a very populated city, it is scheduled to go off in an hour and he is the only one that knows the location. He will not disclose the location unless his outrageous demands are met, it would be left to the assumption there is only one option left to save millions, that is, torture. Although this invented instance is effective it is just one tactic to get a readers attention and agreement. In the two essays, “Yes, It Should Be “On the Books”” by Alan M. Dershowitz and “The Case for Torture” by Michael Levin, being evaluated, the authors use not only this technique but also many others to persuade the readers to take on their views. Dershowitz uses real examples to support his points and is direct on where he stands on the matter, but sometimes he seems a little pushy and cold. Levin on the other hand fascinates us with his hypothetical cases while griping the reader’s attention throughout his essay, but assumes agreement on the reader’s part and uses tactics of fear to persuade. The styles of both essays differ greatly just as much as the personas and methods of persuading do, but the purpose of both essays are very similar, which is to persuade the audience to accept that torture is permissible under certain circumstances. These topics will be discussed and evaluated while ethos, logos, and pathos are being emphasized. And this will be done in order with article 1 then article 2.…

    • 1671 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The love of a family is life's greatest blessing. The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore, is about two separate people with an identical name, Wes Moore. They live in the same type of area and they have hard times. Even though they both live in the Ghetto, they're lives are completely different. One joins the army while the other takes a life time trip to jail. In the book, The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore, the author explores the idea of parental support to develop the theme that parents should take care and support their children so that they're safe and successful.…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At some point everyone has heard of torture. It could have been in a movie or on the news, but they have heard of it. In this day and age, people would like to have believed it was all behind us in the past. Then 9/11 happened, everyone’s lives were changed with one simple act of cruelty. Before 9/11 hit the U.S. in a wave of pain, panic, and anger, our viewpoints on torture would probably have been less likely that it should be allowed. The decision to torture people who are suspected of being part of terrorist groups has always been decided by the government, for the simple reason that it is required to keep us safe from harm. Some people believe that torture is cruel, unsightly and just inhumane. On the other hand there are people who see it the same way but also believe it could be necessary in extreme circumstances. We’re going to look at two different points of torture: When it is acceptable and when it is not acceptable.…

    • 886 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “The Truth about Torture,” Charles Krauthammer critically analyzes the John McCain, an individual with tremendous moral influence who was tortured by the North Vietnamese, amendment. This amendment would prohibit all forms of torture from being executed on war prisoners of America. In response, Krauthammer states that in certain scenarios, torture is not “just permissible, but also morally required.” He divides the war prisoners into the following three classifications: ordinary soldiers arrested on the battlefield, captured terrorists, and finally, terrorists who possess information. With regards to the ordinary soldiers, McCain’s amendment is justified because although these war prisoners are on the opposite side of the conflict, they are nonetheless lawful fighters who committed no crime. On the contrary, Krauthammer believes that the terrorists are not worthy of the same protection and privileges since they intend to harm innocent citizens.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Henry Shue begins his article discussing torture with constraints which allows the victim to “surrender” and comply with the demands of the torturer. According to the Constraint of Possible Compliance (CPC), “the victim of torture must have available an act of compliance which, if performed, will end the torture” (Shue 427). With the aim of interrogational torture being to extract information from a person with holding it, this torture appears to satisfy the constraint of possible compliance, since it offers an escape, in the form of providing the information wanted by the torturers, which affords some protection against further assault. In practice there are evidently only a few pure cases of interrogational torture. For the most dominant type of torture that occurs today is considered to be terroristic. Terroristic torture is meant to put fear in not only the victim, but also all those who oppose that government. The victim’s suffering is being used as a means to end over which the victim has no control over.…

    • 505 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tragedy In Torture

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Advocates of torture argue that torture is a necessary tool especially in time sensitive scenarios, like if an individual is the only person alive who knows the whereabouts of a bomb that is set to detonate, resulting in the deaths of hundreds. I could not even imagine how stressful the interview process of this scenario would be, as time progresses and no results are being produced, inflicting pain does not only have the possibility of yielding results but it would also be a convenient way to externalize your frustrations.…

    • 1125 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We are put under a time crunch that affects how we deal with situations. Michael Levin wrote in his essay “The Case for Torture” that we should use torture because it is better to torture one person who is obviously guilty. This would help insure that thousands of lives could be saved at the expense of just one or a few people. In a brief statement about terrorist’s rights, Levin says “torture is barbaric? Mass murder is more barbaric” (532). In this simple statement, Levin argues that torturing is the lesser of two evils. And it is true. Would we rather sacrifice many lives for one that is potentially guilty? Most would say no. In fact, if we allow torture to become legal, we might get results that many have not thought of. If torture was made legal, it could potentially intimidate future terrorists into thinking twice about their plans. Still, nothing is for…

    • 1284 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There are many questions relating to the use of torture against any person whatsoever. As such, there are different perspectives on the ethics of its usage as well. While some believe that the use of torture becomes necessary at times, others believe that whatever the circumstances are, torture can never be justified. Some very pertinent issues related to the use of torture are, “Suppose a child has been kidnapped and a person has been suspected of committing the crime. Is it justifiable to torture that person in order to try to extract information from him about the child? Now suppose the person would not react at all if he is subjected to torture but there is a chance that he would divulge information if his child of the similar age as the…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    On one side of the controversy, a significant community of experts argue that a government should be able to use torture, but only under very particular and exceptional circumstances, such as a terrorist attack, when thousands of innocent lives…

    • 1512 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Arguments Against Torture

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Justifying the needs of implementing various methods of torture is strongly a recommended option to protecting America’s security and American citizens. While the debate of whether the use of torture is valid to protect the United States of America overall, supporters of the argument strongly argue that interrogating terrorists is only useful when various torture methods are involved. During one of the United States of America’s darkest periods in the nation’s history, the terrorists attack of September 11, 2001 rebooted the discussion of how various methods of torture are a justifiable means to not only place vengeance on the terrorists involved in the attacks on America’s soil. In the course of the aftermath of the horrific attacks of September 11, 2001, supporters of using various methods of torture during the interrogation process observed a central argument to prove their case. For example, if America’s security becomes unfortunately at risk of another terrorists attack, the nation could potentially protect Americans by implementing various methods of torture to only not question terrorists’ against their willpower.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In discussions of ticking time bombs, one controversial issue has been how to deal with the alleged guilty terrorist once he is captured. On the one hand, some people, including Michael Levin, a libertarian writer and educator, argue that it is in the US government’s right to torture the guilty terrorist because his knowledge could be used to save the lives of millions. On the other hand, others, such as Philip Heymann, who is a writer that had worked in the government field, firmly states that torture should never be used because the chance that it will produce true and useful information is nearly impossible and it is vastly more crucial to preserve the international bans on torture. Shirley Jackson elaborates on Heymann’s view when she…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Philosophy

    • 2316 Words
    • 10 Pages

    The term “Philosophy” is derived from two Greek words, Philia meaning “to love” or “to befriend” and, Sophia meaning “wisdom.” Thus, philosophy, means “the love of wisdom”. It was coined by Pythagoras, one of the sages of ancient Greece, born about the year 584 B.C. Philosophy is an activity people undertake when they seek to understand fundamental truths about themselves, the world in which they live, and their relationships to the world and to each other. As an academic discipline philosophy is much the same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their answers to life’s most basic questions. To make such a pursuit more systematic academic philosophy is traditionally divided into major areas of study.…

    • 2316 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays