Ticking time bomb scenario

"Ticking time bomb" redirects here. For the Tackhead song, see Ticking Time Bomb.

The ticking time bomb scenario is a thought experiment that has been used in the ethics debate over whether interrogational torture can ever be justified. The scenario can be formulated as follows:

Suppose that a person with knowledge of an imminent terrorist attack that will kill many people is in the hands of the authorities, and he will disclose the information needed to prevent the attack only if he is tortured. Should he be tortured?[1]

Some consequentialists argue that nations, even those that legally disallow torture, can justify its use if they have a terrorist in custody who possesses critical knowledge, such as the location of a time bomb or a weapon of mass destruction that will soon explode and kill many people.

Opponents to the argument usually begin by exposing certain assumptions that tend to be hidden by initial presentations of the scenario and tend to obscure the true costs of permitting torture in "real-life" scenarios—e.g., the assumption that the person is in fact a terrorist, whereas in real life there usually remains uncertainty about whether the person is in fact a terrorist and if they have useful information[2]—and rely on legal, philosophical/moral, and empirical grounds to reaffirm the need for the absolute prohibition of torture. There is also uncertainty about the efficacy of interrogational torture, and much opposition to torture is based on the fact it is not effective rather than any moral issue, as well as how the decision to apply (or even allow) torture, whether or not an official process exists for doing so, might figure in the game theoretical payoff matrix of the hypothetical terrorist, or the problem framers.

The ticking time bomb scenario is extremely rare in real life,[3][4] but it is often cited as a reason for using torture.[5]

  1. ^ Defusing the Ticking Bomb Scenario: Why we must say No to torture, Always (PDF). Association for the Prevention of Torture. September 2007. ISBN 978-2940337163. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
  2. ^ Spino, Joseph; Dellarosa Cummins, Denise (August 2014). "The Ticking Time Bomb: When the Use of Torture Is and Is Not Endorsed". Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 5 (4): 543–563. doi:10.1007/s13164-014-0199-y. S2CID 41294581.
  3. ^ Carver & Handley 2016, p. 36.
  4. ^ Hassner, Ron E. (January 2, 2018). "The Myth of the Ticking Bomb". The Washington Quarterly. 41 (1): 83–94. doi:10.1080/0163660X.2018.1445367. S2CID 158065052.
  5. ^ Rejali 2020, pp. 92–93, 106.