The ancient Greeks routinely tortured slaves to extract evidence for legal trials. They considered truth obtained from slaves by torture to be more reliable than the freely-given testimony of free men. This text questions whether recollection of this fact is merely a curiosity that allows us to marvel at our progress from the past, or whether our very idea of truth, the truth of the philosophical tradition founded by the ancient Greeks, is caught up in the logic of torture, in which truth is conceived of as residing elsewhere, requiring violence if necessary for its production. Examining ancient Greek literary, philosophical and legal texts, the author analyzes how the Athenian torture of slaves emerged from and reinforced the concept of truth being repressed.
- ISBN10 0415902126
- ISBN13 9780415902120
- Publish Date 4 July 1991
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 8 November 2009
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
- Imprint Routledge
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 270
- Language English