Source: David Friedman’s Substack
by David Friedman
“A terrorist has planted an atomic bomb in New York City, set to go off at midnight. The police have caught him but do not know where the bomb is. They torture him until he tells them, locate the bomb, disarm it, save a million lives. That is an example of an imaginary situation where it seems clear that the use of torture is justified, one sometimes offered in defense of real-world torture, such as water boarding. The answer to the argument that many people, myself among them, find convincing distinguishes between case and rule …” (08/30/24)