28 Oct 09
Originally posted by trotsky1990The little girl, obviously.
Suppose that you are faced with a choice where you can save 1 middle class male, and have 4 middle class males die. Your other option is that you can save the 4 middle class males and let the other die.
Common sense says that you save the four instead of the 1.....but.....
Lets say you are in a labratory. In the labratory there is a little girl an ...[text shortened]... alized female eggs. You can only carry either the girl or the petri dish. Which one do you save?
28 Oct 09
1 edit
Originally posted by DrKFI agree. The important thing is not to make the wrong conclusions based on the answer. For example, if I say 'save the girl' that does not mean that I believe the embryos are not human. There may be other explanations, for example I may value some human lives more than others.
I disagree that such thought experiments are always silly, although you've shown how one can make them silly. In the example I gave, it doesn't matter who the ten people or the one person might be: it's designed to make people think about what constitutes an ethically or morally acceptable action or inaction. It certainly has wider implications in moral ve and, i would suggest, no correct answer: that's how the best thought experiments work.
Lets try this one. I know that somewhere in Africa, someone is starving to death. Should I buy that big screen tv I have had my eye on for the last month or should I use the money to save some poor starving soul in Africa? If I go for the big screen tv, does it prove that I don't believe Africans are human?
The questions become even harder when the outcome of your actions are not so well know. For example, should I start a war in which there will be many civilian casualties in order to reduce the threat of attack? What if the numbers are mostly unknown? What value do I give to lives of my country members and those of a country that is my enemy? Should I take the religion of the individuals into consideration?
28 Oct 09
Originally posted by DrKFStop the train !
It's reminiscent of several famous thought experiments. Another favourite is:
A train is running along a track out of control, due to a blameless and random fault. If it carries on its current course, it will plough in to and kill ten people on the tracks. But you have a lever you can pull - that will divert the train so that it now ploughs in to and kills only one person.
What do you do?