Tortur (
Torture) by Morten Dige (
faculty profile), an associate professor of philosophy at Aarhus University, is his Danish-language accessibly-written academic essay about the effects of torture upon society, tackling the arguments for and against its use in tracking terrorism, #41 in the Tænkepauser ("Reflections", beginning to become available in English translation
on their webpage here) series of 60-page shorts designed to provide a 60-minute introduction to assorted cultural/intellectual ideas for laypersons, free courtesy of Aarhus University Press in Denmark.
This is the current offering in their generous freebie program which gives away the latest one and its accompanying audiobook reading as a freebie, which has now changed to a term of just for one week after publication.
Free for a limited time through September 12th, Danish time, directly @ the
Aarhus University Press website (DRM-free ePub & PDF; download the MP3 audiobook under the
Om bogen section where it says “som lydbog”)
And this has been the selected 3rd (non-repeat) free ebook thread of the day.
A little by default, but it's nice to see this informative Aarhus University series offering back from summer hiatus as well, and it's a shame they don't offer discounted e-book bundles of previous installments for them as they do for the print versions. Well, maybe one day.
Enjoy!
Beskrivelse på dansk
Tortur er grusom. Men den virker. Desværre mest når ofrene er uskyldige. De indrømmer hvad som helst. Terrorister bider derimod sjældent negle ved udsigten til at få dem revet ud. De vil dø for deres sag. Alligevel tror mange, at tortur er det bedste forsvar mod alskens bombemænd. Men faktisk risikerer vi alle at miste forstanden ifølge Morten Dige, filosof ved Aarhus Universitet. Tortur ødelægger nemlig ikke bare ofrene. Også det samfund, der accepterer tortur, lider ubodelig skade. Prisen for vores værdier er netop, at vi ikke kan forsvare dem med alle midler.