評論
打印
Their claims of reminiscing of the lax moral teachings of the 17th century Jesuits
他們聲稱要上溯到缺乏道德教育的17世紀的耶穌會修士
which occasioned Blasé Pascal's furious satirical attacks on casuistry in general.
他們對帕斯卡式的詭辯發起了憤怒的攻擊和諷刺
Pascal's case devastated the reputation of casuistry for centuries by arguing and reasoning
帕斯卡在后來的幾個世紀使得詭辯的名聲一直無法恢復
about possible exceptions to the universal law rules of Christianity led inevitably to condoning the most offensive practices.
他通過推理得出了不適用于基督教法律的一些例外這就導致了對最應該受處罰的一些行為的寬恕
And indeed this appears at first blush to be what is happening in our day with respect to the justification of torture.
乍看起來這就像是我們今天對虐囚行為的開脫一樣
The practical response however to claims such as those put forth in the famous Biden Memo,
對這些看法如在著名的拜登備忘錄中的
or in attorney general Mukasey's testimony is not necessarily to condemn them
以及大法官Mukasey的證詞較為實際的做法是
as Pascal condemned the Jesuits by invoking any abstract universal principle but rather to point out the specific flaws in their reasoning.
是并不一定要譴責他們就像帕斯卡通過援引抽象的普遍原則譴責耶穌會士那樣
As Johnston and Turman write, the distinction to be made,
而是應該指出他們邏輯中的漏洞像Johnston和Turman寫的那樣
quote "is not between a high minded ethics of pure principle and in an inevitably debased morality of cases and circumstances,
應該做出的區分并不是 "不是在崇高的倫理和純粹的原則與不那么光彩的在具體的情況中做出的道德選擇間的
it is between good casuistry which applies general rules to particular cases with discernment and bad casuistry
而是在好的將普遍原則應用到具體例子上的有洞見的好的詭辯與做同樣的事情
which does the same thing sloppily."
但是做得不好的詭辯"
In the situation at hand it seems that the administration has engaged in bad casuistry in a number of ways.
就目前的情況看政府在幾個方面都淪為壞的詭辯了
It has made unjustified generalisations from exceptions by claiming
它通過個例做出了不公正的普遍性推斷
that the ticking bomb case can be thought of as a useful paradigm to apply to the situation of detainees
即認為定時炸彈這種情況適用于每個與那個案例并不
that do not resemble that case, it has exaggerated the differences between a paradigm piece of torture,
相似的被拘押者身上這種刑罰對被拘押者造成了永久的身體上的傷害
that which causes sustained and permanent physical damage and its allowed these cases of cruel and degrading human treatment,
它允許對被拘押者進行殘酷和不人道的對待
