Date of Graduation

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Philosophy

Advisor/Mentor

Dr. Ashley Purdy

Committee Member

Dr. Richard Lee

Second Committee Member

Dr. Daniela D'Eugenio

Third Committee Member

Dr. A. Burcu Bayram

Abstract

This thesis examines why torture, despite being among the clearest objects of moral revulsion available to us, remains imaginable as a serious moral possibility. I begin by refining the concept of torture through an examination of the United Nations Convention Against Torture, while arguing that insufficient attention has been paid to what I take to be its paradigmatic form, namely sadistic torture. Against definitions that treat torture primarily in instrumental terms, I argue that torture is best understood as the intentional infliction of extreme pain upon an unwilling person in order to dominate or otherwise manipulate their autonomy. Drawing on Elaine Scarry and David Sussman, I argue that torture is morally distinctive not simply because it causes extreme suffering, but because it exploits pain’s capacity to estrange a person from their own agency. I then turn to the two primary ways in which torture is justified, first through utilitarian reasoning and second through retributive or liability-based reasoning. I argue that these accounts succeed only by presupposing highly contentious and often fantastical conditions. The deeper conclusion of the project is that the persistence of torture’s defenders does not originate in the strength of these justifications themselves, but in the affective states of fear, anger, helplessness, and the desire to make suffering answer suffering.

Keywords

Torture; Ethics; Autonomy; Violence; Retribution; Utilitarianism

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