Torture

Donatella Di Cesare is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Sapienza University of Rome.

• Prologue vii1 The Politics of torture 11 Without end? Torture in the twenty-first century 12 Torture and power 43 The dark backdrop of sacrifice: torture in the mechanisms of terror 94 Torture after the abolition of torture 135 The black phoenix 166 Torture and democracy 197 After 9/11: state of exception, pre-emptive torture 218 The debate over torture 259 The dilemma of ‘getting our hands dirty’: Thomas Nagel and Michael Walzer 2810 Alan Dershowitz and the ‘torture warrant’ 3311 The lesser evil is still an evil 3812 24: the gentleman torturer 4013 A political theology of torture 4114 Why not torture the terrorist? The ticking time bomb 4415 Dangerous, pseudo-philosophical tales 5116 Illegitimacy: the torturer state 5217 A shipwreck of human rights? 5618 Human dignity in torture 592 Phenomenology of Torture 631 Defining torture: etymological notes 632 ‘Whoever has succumbed to torture can no longer feel at home in the world’ (Améry) 663 Torture, genocide, Holocaust 704 Killing and torturing 725 Between biopower and sovereign power 756 Anatomy of the butcher 777 Sade, the negation of the other, and the language of violence 788 From Torquemada to Scilingo: four portraits 819 Born torturers? 8810 Pedro and the Captain 9311 The victim’s secret 9512 Saying the word ‘torture’ 9713 On pain and suffering 9814 Surviving one’s own death 1013 The Administration of Torture 1041 Giulio Regeni: the body of the tortured 1042 Benjamin; or, on an ignominious institution 1073 The G8 in Genoa 1104 ‘No touch’ torture: on Stammheim prison 1145 Desaparecidos: when death is denied 1176 The CIA’s global Gulag 1227 Guantánamo: a camp for the new millennium 1268 Abu Ghraib: the photographs of shame 1299 Women and sexual violence 13110 In the hands of the stronger 13411 Torments and torture marked ‘made in Italy’ 137Epilogue 143References 146Index 156

"After 9/11, popular culture and some pseudo-intellectual arguments have undermined the universal moral condemnation of torture we could once count on. Donatella di Cesare dissects these false positions one by one. Her book makes a wonderful contribution to the legal, ethical and political debates about torture because it highlights the radical immorality and unscientific basis of the myths they create about the benefits of torture in 'keeping us safe.'"Juan Mendez, Professor of Human Rights Law at the American University and former UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment"Donatella Di Cesare is one of the most important voices in contemporary European philosophy.  Her book is a darkly knowing, lucid, and relentless philosophical primer on torture in the age of terrorism.  If human dignity is to survive these bleak times the fierce lessons of Di Cesare's study will need to be absorbed and furthered."Jay Bernstein, New School for Social Research "An important study of barbarism calls for citizens to be vigilant and to resist." Times Higher Education