This may be a new concept for many, but for a Hebrew, this is ancient wisdom. The answer is found in the old children’s story–Jonah. “But the LORD said: ‘You for your part, felt sorry for the bottle-gourd plant, which you did not toil upon or make get big, which proved to be a mere growth of the night and perished as a mere growth of the night. And, for my part, out I not to feel sorry for Nineveh the great city’”
Every educated Hebrew new the value of a human compared to a plant, or a human compared to an animal. The answer is elementary.
The saddest part of this question is, it is not elementary for many people. How sad. A human life is always more valuable than an animal life. The lowest human (Hitler) is of more valuable than the most valuable animal (Lassie?). Snap out of it!
Hmm… Probably the dog, I would say.
In the context of the hypothetical, I have a dog. That suggests I like dogs and care about them and most likely derive a great deal of enjoyment from its presence and interaction with it.
On the other hand, the stranger is…well, a stranger. It’s unlikely they’re going to become a significant part of my life after I save them. They likely will not provide me with any great reward, nor will they provide me with years of companionship and enjoyment. Therefore, saving the dog is more likely to provide me with long-term enjoyment and happiness.
The exception, I suppose, would be if I deemed the stranger to be an attractive potential mate, and I was in a market for such. In that case I might save her, reasoning that I then have an advantage in my attempt to attract her as a long-term relationship partner.
Be sure to tell her your reasoning. She’ll love that, I’m sure!
(I’m surprised this thread is only from 2010. I thought it was much older when I saw the title in my email.)
As much as I love my dog, and would be heartbroken if he died, I would save the stranger.
Human being vs. critter. This is not a difficult choice. There is no way I could face the stranger’s family and friends and say “yeah, sorry 'bout your loss there, but my dog was more important than your son/daughter/spouse. It’s not like I was going to get any reward for saving them, anyway, so I didn’t see the point since there was nothing in it for me.”
That this is even a debate shows how fucked up this world is.
That’s not true; plenty of humans, Hitler being an obvious example, have if anything a negative value for their life. I suspect most people would be more prone to shoot him to make sure he doesn’t save himself. There’s any number of people that I’d feel no obligation to save.
Anyway; all things being equal, generic human against generic pet dog I’d save the human. At least in the abstract realm of theory; in practice I might just assume that the human is better able to save themselves and feel sorry about my mistake afterwards, or I might end up saving the one that’s closest; it doesn’t seem like the kind of situation where I’d be thinking all dispassionately.
Isn’t Lassie owed something for all those times she saved Timmy?
Brutus makes a very good point and demonstrates a classic example of how we can so easily pick and choose how we use our morals. I would probably save the human if he or she didn’t look like a dick and then end up feeling guilty about letting my dog die.
That’s easy. I’d shoot the one who handed me the gun. I’m pretty sure the world would be better off without people handing guns to random people and demanding that they choose between killing a beloved family pet or some unknown person’s son or daughter.
My dog is in my monkeysphere. The stranger isn’t so the dog comes first. And, despite the OP’s caviling, dogs can swim without being taught so when I found out he was safe (shouldn’t take but a moment for even the dimmest dog to figure out what to do) I could then help the stranger.
No, it’s a stranger. If it were someone I knew, then in most cases I’d go for the person. If it’s a stranger (or my ex, or one of a couple of former bosses, &c), I’m probably going for the dog.
I love dogs a lot more than most people I know. Although it would kill me to let my dog drown, the stranger wins. I think my conscious would eat me up later for choosing an animals life over a human being. This person I’d imagine may have a family, kids that depend on them etc…
The death (or lack thereof) of my dog affects me. The death of a stranger doesn’t. Pretty easy choice, given the basic scenario…
Ditto. It’s hard for me to believe that there are people on the other side of this one, even though this thread shows that there clearly are.
I’ll have to change dog to cat.
That said … I’ll save the human, unless I somehow already know that the drowning stranger is a serial killer, mass murderer, or serial rapist. As that knowledge doesn’t fit with the description, I sacrifice both cats, even though I feel really bad about it. I’m a human; humans always take priority with me absent really good reasons to choose otherwise.
I would however save my cat before I’d save any dog. And I’m not sure I’d get my shoes wet for a drowning dog. Maybe a puppy.
I would save neither because there is some element of risk in any rescue attempt. After the event I would blame the panicked dog for causing them both to drowm.
Who raised you? Good grief!
I loved my dogs, just loved them to pieces, but I’m a human and my species comes first. I would be very sad my dog had to die, but that’s just too bad.
And to be perfectly honest, I suspect some people who SAY they’d save their dog first, if the moment came, would save the person. Instinct kicks in sometimes.
Yes, ISTM it is often the case with these hypotheticals.
I recall one thread where it asked “If you had to murder an innocent child to save your child’s life, would you?” and you had people saying shit like: “I’d massacre thousands of children if need be”!
I think where there’s an emotional aspect some people just have a knee-jerk thing where they answer as though they’d literally do anything for their dog/child/lucky sweater.
But in RL situations when these things play out, the vast majority of people aren’t that callous, thank goodness.
In RL, most people don’t have to make that sort of decision. If someone is drowning, the choice usually is to save them or not save them, not to decide between them and their own dog. In RL, most people freeze like a snowman and would end up watching someone drown.
The fact that I saved a dog instead of freakin’ human being would damn well affect affect me. Pretty easy choice, given the basic scenario