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17th Century Torture Essay

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that the individual had committed. Overtime, public torture began to be marked by celebrations and huge crowds. The number of women who were considered as the most delicate of the human species, began to grow in leaps and bounds. The act had lost its initial ‘shock factor’. The feeling of fear that was supposed to prevent future crimes was lost. The collective reverence of the human body especially under religion, began to ebb away due to overexposure to these public executions. This attitude began to change in the second half of the 17th century. Philosophical Debate Regarding the use of Torture According to Lyn Hunt, Author of ‘Inventing Human Rights’, once debates and arguments against torture and cruel punishment began to be commonplace, …show more content…

The most notable case of torture that prompted this new wave was that of Jean Calas, a man who was sentenced to ‘breaking on wheel’ for allegedly murdering his son. The French Philosopher, Francois- Marie Arouet, commonly known as Voltaire championed the campaign against this sentence by writing ‘the treatise on tolerance on the occasion of the death of Jean Calas.’ In this letter, he argued against religious intolerance but not against torture. He stated that “it is in the interest of mankind to examine whether the true religious spirit is more consistent with charity or with cruelty” (Voltaire, Masters, & Harvey, 2004). However, over time Voltaire began to publicly condemn Torture and a new wave of intellectual debates began. The Italian Philosopher, Cesar Beccaria, in his essay on crimes and punishment, limited criminal punishment to “what is absolutely necessary to defend the public wellbeing” (Harcourt, 2013). Beccaria opposed torture and punishment that was carried out in private. He opined that privacy made punishments lose their deterrent value. William Blackstone, following in Beccaria’s footsteps, made a resounding statement that has transcended its time. He states that criminal should always be "conformable to the dictates of truth and justice, the feelings of humanity, and the indelible rights of mankind." (Hunt,

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In Michael Levin’s “The Case for Torture”, he uses many cases of emotional appeal to persuade the reader that torture is necessary in extreme cases. There are many terms/statements that stick with the reader throughout the essay so that they will have more attachment to what is being said. Levin is particularly leaning to an audience based in the United States because he uses an allusion to reference an event that happened within the states and will better relate to the people that were impacted by it. The emotional appeals used in this essay are used for the purpose of persuading the reader to agree that in extreme instances torture is necessary and the United States should begin considering it as a tactic for future cases of extremity. One major eye catching factor of this essay is the repetitive use of words that imply certain stigmas.

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Foucault argues, that the function of punishment is not to deter crime, rather it is to illustrate the power of the state. In 1700s executions were common public spectacles where torture was used to humiliate and inflict pain and suffering. In contemporary society, Foucault argues new forms of punishment are used, such as discipline based surveillance. The purpose of the technique is used to gain similar ends, by managing and controlling offenders in a more humane

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In Michael Levin's The Case for Torture, Levin provides an argument in which he discusses the significance of inflicting torture to perpetrators as a way of punishment. In his argument, he dispenses a critical approach into what he believes justifies torture in certain situations. Torture is assumed to be banned in our culture and the thought of it takes society back to the brutal ages. He argues that societies that are enlightened reject torture and the authoritative figure that engage in its application risk the displeasure of the United States. In his perspective, he provides instances in which wrongdoers put the lives of innocent people at risk and discusses the aspect of death and idealism.

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