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Intro to Philosophy
09-25-06

The Art of Information Retrieval

Torture seems to be something ingrained into our psyche from a very young age. Pulling the legs off ants, wings off flies, firecrackers in a toads mouth, all of these are examples of what a 12 year old boy finds entertaining. But everything comes full circle someday, the twelve year old boy pulling legs of an ant is not very far away from the 46 year old ex-marine who is trying to draw a violent war plan from a captured opponent. The question is not whether or not torture is a good thing. It can save lives, it can prevent disaster, at times torture is a fabulous form of learning! But morally, torture should be on the far end of our compass.

Causing another human being pain is wrong. Doing to others what you wouldn’t want done to yourself is wrong. There is really no way about it, whether you’re morally corrupt or brought up the wrong way, it should be looked at the same. Treat others the way you would like to be treated. It’s such a basic concept but so applicable through our entire lives. A humans upbringing can re-shape his outlook on torture as well. Although there are problems with this thesis as well, is a man brought up thinking there is nothing wrong with torture a bad person. He doesn’t know that its wrong.