Save the girl? pt. 2

The next question i have for you is another simple one. The girl that you all said you would save. What if i told you she had only a 90% chance of surviving. You would still lose your job if you saved her. You lose it all at a 90% chance to save a stranger. Would you take it?

Do you save the girl?

Your walking to an interview for a new job. The job pays over 100k a year and is doing the thing you love the most. Yes, that one thing you truly enjoy. This is like your dream job. You bought a brand new suit and are on your way. The one thing you were told before the interview was to show up on time. If you don't show up on time there is no way you'll get the job. On your way walking there, you enjoy the scenery and that's why your walking, you hear the noise of someone drowning. You run to it and see a little girl drowning in a pond. No one is around and no one else is coming. If you stop and save her you will be late to the job interview and risk not getting the job. If you don't save her it looks like she will die. No one will know you were ever here.

Save her?

Think of the Ethics

Last time i posted i had a few questions up that i wanted people to think about. Not many people really went into them but i want to bring them up anyway.

1. A man stands on a platform watching as 5 people are about to get run over by a train. He looks to his right and sees a lever. If he pulls the lever, the train will switch tracks. However, on those tracks there is a single man who will not have time to get out of the way. Should the man pull the lever? Would you pull the lever?

2. In a similar situation, a man stands on a platform watching as 5 people are about to get run over by a train, but now there is no lever and a man stands next to him. The first man has a choice. If he pushes the other man onto the tracks that man will die but the train will come to a stop and the five people will be saved. Should he do it? Would you do it?

3. Is there a difference between these two questions when it comes to your moral judgement?

My responses to those questions are quite simple i believe. To the first question i believe we should first get a grasp on what kind of people are on the tracks. If the large grouping of people are mostly homeless, drug users, and criminals and the one person is a Doctor who donates his time and money to help the poor then we should obviously save the one doctor at that point. What i suggest is you give each human being a value. (If insurance companies can do it and make billions then i can too.) If the value of the group out weighs the value of the individual than sacrifice the individual to save the group.

Your allowed to go anything to set up what a value would be or how you achieved your ranking. A loved one would rank higher than anything else due to their value to you as a human being. A person you hate could be a doctor who donates their money and time but you still hate them and would prefer to see them dead.

The point of the second question is to see if there is a difference between just pulling the lever and the physical act of pushing someone off. The belief is that by actually having to push the person to their death you may decide to not do it. There is no difference between question 1 and 2. It is simply how we perceive the action.

We'll talk again soon. Good luck justifying your life and actions.

First Real Post

As i sit here at work and think upon all the things that i should talk about a few things come to mind. Movies, Books, Games, Life, Love. It seems that everything has been covered. How many more blogs need to exist and talk about how silly their lives are. How many more blogs need to cover their opinions on politics. The answer, in my opinion, is not many more. I don't need to say what 1000 other people are saying. I don't need to try and argue with people about what they think. People are allowed to do and say that they wish. So i make this pledge to you. I will not judge you for what you think. Nor will i judge you for what you say. Nor will i even judge you for how you act. Who am i to know what your thinking, or feeling, or why your doing the things you do. No single thing is every wrong or right always. Murder is justified when you kill someone in defense of your loved ones. Theft is justified when you still to help your family. Embezzling if your stealing money from an evil corporation and then planning on donating the money to charity.

We've grown up in this world trying to tell us what is right and wrong. Trying to say "Do this, don't do this". How do we know what we're supposed to do? Our culture tells us. Our society. Who say's we should listen to our society? Nazi Germany's society told them kill the jews. Was it right to do that? Our society says no, that was wrong. According the the Nazi's society it was right. I know that i personally think it was wrong.

I personally think that us as people aren't as civilized  as we'd like to think. I have a few questions for you to answer. Please.

1. A man stands on a platform watching as 5 people are about to get run over by a train. He looks to his right and sees a lever. If he pulls the lever, the train will switch tracks. However, on those tracks there is a single man who will not have time to get out of the way. Should the man pull the lever? Would you pull the lever?

2. In a similar situation, a man stands on a platform watching as 5 people are about to get run over by a train, but now there is no lever and a man stands next to him. The first man has a choice. If he pushes the other man onto the tracks that man will die but the train will come to a stop and the five people will be saved. Should he do it? Would you do it?

3. Is there a difference between these two questions when it comes to your moral judgement?

Life

This is my first attempt at blogging. I plan on updating this quite often. Right now it's just a work in progress. I'm excited to see what happens. I'll keep you all up to speed on everything that's going on in everything i find interesting.