Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal by Zach Weinersmith for November 27, 2015
November 26, 2015
November 28, 2015
Transcript:
Suppose you're in an out-of-control train. The train's path forks and you can either continue ahead or turn right. If you do nothing, you ram into Hitler. If you turn, you ram into ten Hitler's. You could argue that if you ram ten Hitler's, you've killed more evil people, and are therefore more ethical. Or, you could argue that by ramming only one Hitler, you achieve maximum remaining Hitler's. This will prevent any single Hitler from rising to power. And that is the difference between virtue ethics and consequential ethics. Maybe we should just try to find out who's cloning all these Hitler's. Pragmatism is not welcome in this classroom!
Ida No almost 9 years ago
Pragma Ethics. Very directed.
Brass Orchid Premium Member almost 9 years ago
But if we didn’t clone all those Hitlers, then there wouldn’t be anything to use in our consequence ethics study.
Coyoty Premium Member almost 9 years ago
Someone has to clone Hitler. He keeps getting killed by time travelers.
Ida No almost 9 years ago
Shoot the track switch before you reach the fork.
radarhead almost 9 years ago
Uh, I don’t think thhat’s the correct scenario…
Brass Orchid Premium Member almost 9 years ago
Being lucky is more important than being good in cases where being good is stringently avoided.