Deliberately painful methods of torture and execution for severe crimes were taken for granted as part of justice until the development of humanism in 17th century philosophy (Wiki 2016). Torture is a form of punishment or a way of gaining important information but is it justifiable to torture someone to get information? Some torture can be justified through utilitarianism. The Utilitarianism is a view where what 's acceptable and morally right is whatever is utility to happiness. Torture is the act of intentionally causing severe pain or suffering. There are different philosophical views on torture. The circumstances to make torture justified the information gained has to be more valuable then morals or the life. Torture can be justified through utilitarianism but it could also be justified to have a law preventing torture.
What is Utilitarianism?
Utilitarianism is characterized by 2 elements happiness and consequentialism. …show more content…
An example of this would be the ticking time bomb scenario as the information gained from torturing this terrorist would save thousands of lives at the expense of a few the effect of torture is massive not only on the receiver but the torturers as they have to give out this pain. But the lives saved are considered more valuable than the morals or a few lives. What if in the ticking time bomb scenario you couldn 't get the information from the terrorist as he was ready to die for his beliefs but you had obtained his wife and children then would the torture be justifiable? Yes even though you are torturing innocent people the information about the bombs location is far more valuable than the psyche of a few people as when we know the location of the bomb we can deactivate it saving thousands of lives. Even though torture is horrible and should only be carried out as a very last resort it can be