Examination by torture is one form of evidence, to which great weight is often attached because it is in a sense compulsory. Here again it is not hard to point out the available grounds for magnifying its value, if it happens to tell in our favor, and arguing that it is the only form of evidence that is infallible; or, on the other hand, for refuting it if it tells against us and for our opponent, when we may say what is true of torture of every kind alike, that people under its compulsion tell lies quite as often as they tell the truth, sometimes persistently refusing to tell the truth, sometimes recklessly making a false charge in order to be let off sooner. We ought to be able to quote cases, familiar to the judges, in which this sort of thing has actually happened. [We must say that evidence under torture is not trustworthy, the fact being that many men whether thick-witted, tough-skinned, or stout of heart endure their ordeal nobly, while cowards and timid men are full of boldness till they see the ordeal of these others; so that no trust can be placed in evidence under torture.]
—Aristotle (384-322 BC), Rhetoric
(translated by W.Rhys Roberts)
emphasis mine.
Gosh,
ReplyDeleteGuess a lot of our "leaders" slept through their philosophy 101 courses lo those many years ago. Pity. Tragedy, actually.
no, tragedy is in his poetics
ReplyDeleteI slept through Aristotle too but maybe I missed something.
ReplyDelete