Torture persisted because it revealed truth and displayed power

Evidence

In accounting for a penal system involving so much torture, these are general and in a sense external reasons; they explain not only the possibility and the long survival of physical punishments, but also the weakness and the rather sporadic nature of the opposition to them. Against this general background we must bring out their precise function. If torture was so strongly embedded in legal practice, it was because it revealed truth and showed the operation of power. It assured the articulation of the written on the oral, the secret on the public, the procedure of investigation on the operation of the confession; it made it possible to reproduce the crime on the visible body of the criminal; in the same horror, the crime had to be manifested and annulled. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 110

Categorization

• DEFINE: Foucault here names the truth-power relation as the mechanism at the heart of all punishment, the concept the reader’s panopticon thesis will test against.
• XREF: connects to: Public torture was spectacle designed to display sovereign power publicly — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 83; Judicial torture was a quantified technique, not lawless rage — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 83; Truth serum torture destroys victims’ capacity to distinguish true from false (+13 more)

Related

• Torture was a genuine contest in which a resisting suspect could legally win (similarity 0.85)
• Public torture was spectacle designed to display sovereign power publicly (similarity 0.82)
• The punished body anchors sovereign power’s manifestation (similarity 0.82)
• Institutionalized torture corrupts every institution it touches (similarity 0.81)
• Judicial torture was a quantified technique, not lawless rage (similarity 0.81)
• Sovereign power was recharged only through visible spectacle (similarity 0.80)
• Torture and semi-proofs scandalized justice only when the power to punish required certainty (similarity 0.80)
• Routinized supplementary torture accompanied nearly all serious penalties (similarity 0.79)
• Torture’s ambiguous truth makes it a potent propaganda weapon for both sides (similarity 0.79)
• Truth serum torture destroys victims’ capacity to distinguish true from false (similarity 0.78)
• Public torture and execution was among the most popular spectacles of eighteenth-century France. (similarity 0.78)
• The sovereign executed regicides with symbolic maximal torture (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The sovereign executed regicides with symbolic maximal torture #exemplifies (0.85) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 108
• Torture succeeding in the short term proves a double-edged long-term weapon #complicates (0.82) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 609
• Horne distinguishes physical brutality after arrest from systematic torture aimed at extracting information #qualifies (0.82) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 581
• Truth serum torture destroys victims’ capacity to distinguish true from false #complicates (0.80)
• Torture’s ambiguous truth makes it a potent propaganda weapon for both sides #complicates (0.80) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 580
• Torture proved a boomerang weapon that undermined the power using it #contradicts (0.80)
• The punished body anchors sovereign power’s manifestation #exemplifies (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 110
• Brutalizing war and fear of losing drove army torture institutionalization #expands (0.80)
• Torture’s contested truth made it a lasting canker for France #exemplifies (0.78)
• Suppressing conscience in soldiers led directly to military torture #expands (0.78)
• Torture is counterproductive even for intelligence gathering #contradicts (0.75) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 52
• Subtler punishment masked sovereign power rather than making it more humane #expands (0.75)
• Torture yields false intelligence and creates more terrorists than it kills #contradicts (0.75) — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 611