©2008. International Journal of Applied Philosophy 22:1. ISSN 0738-098X. pp. 103–116 It’s About Time: Defusing the Ticking Bomb Argument J. Jeremy Wisnewski Hartwick College ABSTRACT: The most common argument in favor of torture in the cur- rent literature is the ticking bomb argument. It asks us to imagine a case where only torture can prevent the detonation of a bomb that will kill millions. In this paper, I argue that the seeming effectiveness of this argu- ment rests on two things: 1) the underdetermined semantic content of the term ‘torture,’ and 2) a philosophical attitude that regards the empirical facts about torture as irrelevant. Once we pay attention to the facts about torture, and particularly about the role time plays in actual torture, the ticking bomb argument becomes incoherent, and hence cannot provide a basis for accepting torture. T he most common conversations about interrogational torture tend to em- ploy economic language: the give and take of question and answer, of pain and information, of possible costs and beneits. Indeed, the force of the most common argument in favor of limited permissibility (The Ticking-Bomb Argu- ment) depends precisely on economic considerations: we are asked to imagine a scenario in which only torture will enable us to track down a bomb that is set to detonate in a densely-populated urban area. The case is meant to draw on our more utilitarian intuitions—on our desire to save the many at the cost of merely one. If there is a seemingly compelling argument in favor of limited permissibility (which is the most commonly defended view for the permissibility of torture), the ticking-bomb argument is it. It makes the beneits of the hypo- thetical torture quite high, and the costs (seemingly) low. In what follows, I will argue that there is a fundamental incoherence contained in this most-famous of pro-torture arguments. I. THE TICKING BOMB ARGUMENT: TORTURE AS MORALLY PERMISSIBLE Imagine that you, an agent of the CIA, have just captured a well-known terrorist. You have excellent information that there is an imminent atack planned on a major