Which, by the way, is the point of Ursula LeGuin’s short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
I had to double-take. I read that as The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelets and I was baffled.
Er, actually I’m still baffled, but in a less food-oriented sort of way.
Julie
How is the world imperfect? If you assume that, by torturing one child, you can somehow magically be granted a world in which no one suffers (I know, that’s probably not even possible, but we’re dealing with hypotheticals), then wouldn’t there be a net loss in overall suffering if you tortured one child to death? I don’t think that the ends always justify the means, but they certainly seem to in this case.
Hell, if I knew that the non-suffering world were a sure thing, I’d offer to have myself tortured to death, knowing that none of my loved ones would ever have to suffer again (of course, I’d have to assume that some sort of induced amnesia would keep them from remembering that I was tortured, but we are dealing with hypotheticals, after all).
Having “inspired” this, I night as well bite.
a) How many unknown peoples’ lives would you weigh against your closest loved one’s life ?
How many have you got?
b) How many unknown peoples’ lives would you weigh against your own life ?
Less. Still a lot, though. Would I commit suicide if that somehow saved a million people in say India? I don’t think so.
c) How many unknown dogs’ lives would you weigh against your closest loved one’s life ?
All of them
d) How many unknown dogs’ lives would you weigh against your own life ?
All of them
e) How many unknown dogs’ lives would you weigh against one unknown Human’s life ?
All of them, except our own dog.
Dragon Phoenix about a and b, what if you or your loved one had multiple organ failure, and the only way to save them was to purchase organs on the black market, organs which were probably got by third world criminals killing people for them? Would you buy those organs?
For myself, I think I would buy them, even though the idea is morally abhorable to me.
Like all these scenarios, this is nuts of course. For my wife yes, for me no (but if my wife bought them for me, I would definitely not blame her, like some people suggested in a similar situation).
All I can think about after reading this is that far side cartoon where a dog in a raft floats up to a pier and it’s clear that the raft has been adrift for a long time…the guy who finds the raft says something like: “Hey boy, how’d you get in there, wow you’re all healthy and fat”
And there are human bones in the bottom of the raft!
a) How many unkonown peoples’ lives would you weigh against your closest loved one’s life ?
b) How many unkonown peoples’ lives would you weigh against your own life ?
c) How many unkonown dogs’ lives would you weigh against your closest loved one’s life ?
d) How many unkonown dogs’ lives would you weigh against your own life ?
e) How many unkonown dogs’ lives would you weigh against one unknown Human’s life ?
A) 1. 1=1. Like spock, I would go with the numbers.
B) 1. If I can save one person with my life, I am ok with it. Whereas I would have a hard time dealing with knowing I lived so that someone else would die.
C) This one is rather difficult. Theoretically, all of them. I really need to think about this. While I do find humans as more valuable than animals (my belief in a soul), I don’t know that God would want me destroying an entire line of his creation for one person.
D) 1. Again, I have no problem with death.
E) See, “C”.
Thanks sghoul and others. I think this is valuable because as an impossible scenario, anyone would be wrong to use their or another’s answers as some sort of moral judgement for or against the person. Instead this is of interest in learning that other’s views do differ from your own, even in things where you might have believed there was only one answer.
Please carry on.
I agree - I posted something along those lines in the original thread. However, I know at least one person in the other thread who will disagree that there can be more than one answer. :rolleyes: