The Bull of Phalaris: Atrocity in the Canon

08 January 2020, Version 1
This content is an early or alternative research output and has not been peer-reviewed at the time of posting.

Abstract

While political theory occasionally resembles a protracted discussion about violence, the same cannot be said for atrocity. Where something recognizable as atrocity does crop up in canonical texts, it tends to be characterized as a fundamentally extra-political phenomenon. The canon promotes a tautology: atrocity is extra-political and properly political violence is not atrocious. To begin my discussion of atrocity, I first consider the figure of the tyrant and tyrannical violence in Western political thought as a possible proxy issue for early thinking about transgressive violence. Of the many disquisitions on tyranny, Seneca’s distinction between ordinary cruelty and what he calls “bestial savagery” establishes the basis for a theory of atrocity, but it does not go far enough. I then survey canonical discussions of transgressive violence up to the present, emphasizing the recurring theme of non-instrumentality. Finally, I present a tentative formulation of atrocity that underscores its political nature.

Keywords

Atrocity
Violence
Genocide
Cruelty
Phalaris
Torture
Sadism
Evil
Seneca
Aristotle
More
Montaigne
Political Theory
Trangressive Violence

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