Torture and semi-proofs scandalized justice only when the power to punish required certainty

Evidence

The old system of legal proofs, the use of torture, the extraction of confessions, the use of the public execution, the body and spectacle for the reproduction of truth had long isolated penal practice from the common forms of demonstration: semi-proofs produced semi-truths and semi-guilty persons, words extracted by pain had greater authenticity, presumption involved a degree of punishment. The heterogeneity of this system with the ordinary system of proof really constituted a scandal only when the power to punish needed, for its own economy, a climate of irrefutable certainty. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 158

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Not merely that torture was cruel, but that it constituted a distinct epistemology of proof (as punishment-by-degrees), and that reform came not from humanitarianism but from a shift in the power to punish’s own economy toward certainty. This inverts the standard abolitionist narrative.
• XREF: connects to: Judicial torture was a quantified technique, not lawless rage — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 83; Routinized supplementary torture accompanied nearly all serious penalties — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 82; Classical penal evidence worked by continuous gradation, not true-or-false judgement — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 93 (+4 more)

Related

• Classical penal evidence worked by continuous gradation, not true-or-false judgement (similarity 0.86)
• Opening law to all truths made justice lose control over its own truth (similarity 0.84)
• Torture became scandalous only once its pain was recategorized as gratuitous (similarity 0.81)
• Routinized supplementary torture accompanied nearly all serious penalties (similarity 0.80)
• Torture persisted because it revealed truth and displayed power (similarity 0.80)
• Judicial torture was a quantified technique, not lawless rage (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Opening law to all truths made justice lose control over its own truth #expands (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 158