Torture: Why Beccaria Still Calls for Us

In a world of seemingly endless conflict, cruelty is becoming a common trait. In Iran, in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in the Middle East and in dozens of countries experiencing low-intensity warfare, torture has become an everyday occurrence. In the months dedicated to human agency in dialogue with the perspectives of agentic AI, Rekh Magazine asked Professor Gianluigi Segalerba to contribute papers and videos to explore the human condition in depth. We begin with some considerations regarding the relevance of Beccaria's teachings

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Il testo del professor Gianluigi Segalerba sintetizza il pensiero di Cesare Beccaria in merito alla tortura e alla pena di morte, evidenziandone l'inefficacia e l'ingiustizia. L'autore sostiene che la tortura sia un atto di crudeltà che viola la presunzione di innocenza, poiché trasforma il dolore fisico in un inattendibile strumento di ricerca della verità. Parallelamente, il testo rigetta la pena capitale considerandola un atto barbarico e meno deterrente rispetto alla schiavitù perpetua, la quale funge da esempio duraturo per la società. Beccaria sottolinea che le leggi dovrebbero mirare alla prevenzione dei reati attraverso la certezza e la continuità della pena, piuttosto che mediante l'intensità della violenza. In definitiva, l'opera promuove una riforma del sistema giudiziario basata sulla ragione, l'umanità e la tutela dei diritti civili.

In his presentation paper, Professor Gianluigi Segalerba provides a synthesis of Cesare Beccaria’s thoughts on torture and the death penalty, emphasising their ineffectiveness and inherent injustice. The author asserts that torture is a cruel act that contravenes the presumption of innocence by transforming physical pain into an unreliable means of extracting truth. The text also rejects capital punishment, viewing it as barbaric and less effective as a deterrent than perpetual servitude, which sets an example to society. Beccaria emphasises that the law should aim to prevent crime through the certainty and continuity of punishment rather than the severity of it. Ultimately, the text promotes judicial system reform grounded in reason, humanity and the protection of civil rights.

Chi è l'autore

Gianluigi Segalerba was born in Genoa, Italy, on 24 June 1967. He graduated in Philosophy at the University of Pisa in 1991 and obtained his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Pisa in 1998. He was a visiting scholar at the Universities of Tübingen, Berne, and Vienna. He taught at the Institute of Philosophy of the University of Vienna. His first publication was Note su Ousia (Pisa 2001). He was then co-editor of the volume Substantia – Sic et Non (Frankfurt on the Main 2008), and he is the author of the book Semantik und Ontologie: Drei Studien zu Aristoteles (Berne 2013). He currently lives and works in Vienna.