The ticking-time-bomb scenario legitimized torture through utilitarian reasoning

Evidence

These brutal practices were justified using the ticking time bomb metaphor. In this scenario an individual knows the location of a ticking time bomb that will kill countless people when it explodes. The utilitarian justification condones torturing the person to get the location, because it saves the lives of many. In a correlated justification, the CIA claimed that torture worked, allegedly enabling the CIA to abort terrorist plots and to capture of al Qaeda officials (Rose, 2008). — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2371

Categorization

• XREF: The ticking-time-bomb argument is central in contemporary just-war and torture-ethics debates; connects to writings by David Luban and Michael Walzer. — connects to: Instant post-9-11 blame explanations bypassed perpetrator psychology — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 10