PHIL 150 Lecture 2: Torture.doc
Document Summary
A good philosophical definition aims to provide the necessary and sufficient conditions for some concept. N is a necessary condition for p if and only if anything which is not n is not p. S is a sufficient condition for p if and only if anything which is s is also p. They provide the intension of a concept that allows us to pick out the extension of the concept. Ways to attack this argument: one might reject p3. (maybe there are things worse than death. , one might reject p5. (that is pacifism. , you could maintain that conditions could never be met for torture. Killing in war is the result of a fair fight. Part of the reason torture is so horrible is because it is not a fair fight. One person is victimized by another, not merely beaten. Constraint of possible compliance: the victim has available some possible act of compliance that would effectively end the torture.
