Morality of Water Torture

coberst

Morality of Water Torture

The present question regarding the nature and morality of torture offers us an excellent opportunity to advance the level of sophistication of our understanding of morality. We learn best when we are questioning a matter that is meaningful to us.

I was eleven years old when Germany and Japan surrendered and WWII was finally over. One searing memory of this war were the stories I read and the movies I watched during and after the war regarding the torture and general brutality that the German Gestapo inflicted upon the people they conquered. I do not know why this left such a strong impression on me but it certainly did.

Coincidentally I have been studying “Moral Imagination” by Mark Johnson. This is the same Johnson who coauthored the book “Philosophy in the Flesh” with George Lakoff. I have decided to apply the theories Johnson presents in his book as a means to illuminate this matter regarding the morality of water torture used by my country in our struggle with Islamic extremists.

Moral understanding is like any other kind of experience; when we examine a domain of experience that relates to human relationships we must focus our attention on human understanding it self. If we do so we discover that human understanding is fundamentally imaginative in character.

“Many of our most basic concepts have considerable internal structure that cannot be accounted for by the classical theory of concepts as defined by necessary and sufficient features…The primary forms of moral imagination are concepts with prototype structure, semantic frames, conceptual metaphors, and narratives.”

To become morally insightful we must become knowledgeable of these imaginative structures. First, we must give up our illusions about absolute moral codes and also our radical moral subjectivism. Second we must refine our “perception of character traits and situations and of developing empathetic imagination to take up the part of others.”

Empathy is a character trait that can be cultivated by habit and will. Sympathy is somewhat of an automatic response.

When we see a mother weeping over the death of her child caused by a suicide bomber we feel immediate sympathy. Often we will come to tears. But we do not feel anything like that for the mother who may be weeping over the death of her child who was the bomber.

To understand the bomber we must use empathy. We attempt through imagination and reason to create a situation that will allow us to understand why this was done. This is a rational means to understand someone who acts different than we would.

“Empathy is the idea that the vital properties which we experience in or attribute to any person or object outside ourselves are the projections of our own feelings and thoughts.”

The subject viewing an object of art experiences emotional attitudes leading to feelings that are attributes of qualities in the art object thus aesthetic pleasure may be considered as “objectified self-enjoyment in which the subject and object are fused.”

The social sciences adopt a similar concept called ‘empathic understanding’, which refers to the deliberate attempt to identify with another person and accounting for that persons actions by “our own immediate experience of our motivations and attitudes in similar circumstances as we remember or imagine them”. This idea refers to a personal resonance between two people.

“What is crucial is that our moral reasoning can be constrained by the metaphoric and other imaginative structures shared within our culture and moral tradition, yet it can also be creative in transforming our moral understanding, our identity, and the course of our lives. Without this kind of imaginative reasoning we would lead dreadfully impoverished lives. We would be reduced to repeating habitual actions, driven by forces and contingencies beyond our control.”

Can you imagine an individual who is a hard headed realist and very accomplished at empathy sanctioning the use of water torture on anyone, friend or enemy?

gondorff

coberst wrote: »

But we do not feel anything like that for the mother who may be weeping over the death of her child who was the bomber.

Do we not?
Would it be 'immoral' to feel compassion for a person such as this woman?

Empathy, I think, is a natural instinct, which can be seen in its most primitive form in the fight or flight reflex; (what's my adversary's next move? how will I counter?) whereas 'morality' is something that is learnt.

Whilst someone indoctrinated with a 'good' moral code may instinctively empathise with this woman who has lost her son and feel sorrow through her pain, someone else who has been indoctrinated with a 'bad' moral code may well instinctively empathise with the same woman, yet take glee through her pain.
The individuals in these two examples are bounded by conditioning in their interpretation of an innate skill.

coberst

gondorff

I think that it is important to be able to distinguish among the words empathy, sympathy, and compassion.

Webster says empathy—the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it—the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experiencing of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner

Webster says sympathy—an affinity, association, or relationship between persons or things wherein whatever affects one similarly the other.

Webster says compassion--sympathetic consciousness of other's distress together with a desire to alleviate it.

gondorff

Well I would have to agree, for without the ability to distinguish between words, discussion is meaningless.

The cat has a natural empathy with the mouse. Without it there would be no second-guessing of the mouse's actions, resulting in a lucky catch if any catch at all. I would hazard that during the chase the cat is the mouse.
Does the cat feel sympathy or compassion for the mouse? Who knows? I would suggest not.

As for morals, can the cat, without the benefit of a 'proper' upbringing and solid moral grounding, feel any guilt about the taking of a life?

edanto

Do we need a detailed philosophical analysis and understanding of something to judge it good or bad?

In answer to your question, no I can't imagine anyone with a normal amount of empathy sanctioning torture, particularly water torture. Life is not like 24.

The book Bad Men gives an insight into the true objectives of torture as practised by the US military - to break people emotionally, and not for information (since it's almost always unreliable).

coberst

gondorff wrote: »

The cat has a natural empathy with the mouse.

Nonsense.

gondorff

coberst wrote: »

Nonsense.

Nonsense.

edanto

ah girls. be constructive.