[lbo-talk] Torture Re: Nietzsche: Free will

[ravi]

On 10 Jun, 2007, at 12:39 AM, andie nachgeborenen wrote:
>> Carrol Cox wrote:
>>
>> "I want torture to stop -- but it's incidental to me
>> whether someone is made morally responsible for its
>> occurrence."
>
> No, you don't. This is the sort of silly claptrap that
> liberals and leftists feel obliged to pronounce
> because they think that retribution (channeled
> revenge) is ugly. It is ugly, but it is justice and
> virtually everyone, including you, really accepts its
> moral, psychological, and social necessity. It's time
> to stop lying to ourselves. <...>

Do you really think you know all of this about what everyone really  
accepts etc? I doubt it. It would be a lot more convincing if you  
could demonstrate what justice means especially in the form of  
retribution, and why it is necessary (in a non-contingent sense).  
Without such an explanation, and without substantiation of the claim  
about what everyone accepts, etc, I am not sure what to read as  
"silly claptrap"!

	--ravi