You are in a remote mountain village. A group of terrorists has lined up 20 people from the village; they plan on shooting them for collaborating with the enemy. Since you are not from the village, you will not be killed. Taking advantage of your position, you plead with the terrorists not to carry out their plan. Finally, you convince the leader that it is not necessary to kill all 20. He takes a gun, empties it of all its bullets except one, and then hands it to you. He has decided to kill only one villager to set an example to the rest.
As an honored guest and outsider, you will decide who will be killed, and you will carry out the deed. The terrorists conclude with a warning; if you refuse to kill the villager, then they will revert back to the original plan of killing all 20. And if you try any funny business, they will kill the 20 villagers and then kill you. What should you do?
Your Options
Take the gun, select a villager, and kill him or her.
Refuse the terrorists’ offer and walk away from the situation.
[quote]Legionary wrote:
You are in a remote mountain village. A group of terrorists has lined up 20 people from the village; they plan on shooting them for collaborating with the enemy. Since you are not from the village, you will not be killed. Taking advantage of your position, you plead with the terrorists not to carry out their plan. Finally, you convince the leader that it is not necessary to kill all 20. He takes a gun, empties it of all its bullets except one, and then hands it to you. He has decided to kill only one villager to set an example to the rest.
As an honored guest and outsider, you will decide who will be killed, and you will carry out the deed. The terrorists conclude with a warning; if you refuse to kill the villager, then they will revert back to the original plan of killing all 20. And if you try any â??funny business,â?? they will kill the 20 villagers and then kill you. What should you do?
Your Options
Take the gun, select a villager, and kill him or her.
Refuse the terrorists’ offer and walk away from the situation.[/quote]
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
Better that than murder someone else. [/quote]
Murder is unjustified. Killing is not. As the moral actor in this situation, your choices are limited. Blood will be spilled. Its better that one should die than twenty. Will twenty people be murdered because you couldn’t bring yourself do a very bad thing for a very good reason?
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
Better that than murder someone else. [/quote]
Murder is unjustified. Killing is not. As the moral actor in this situation, your choices are limited. Blood will be spilled. Its better that one should die than twenty. Will twenty people be murdered because you couldn’t bring yourself do a very bad thing for a very good reason?[/quote]
This is a utilitarian problem. For a utilitarian his action has no moral agency. It is just the result that matters. One case has 19 people alive. One case has none. So it doesn’t matter if he shoots the one person or tortures the person to death only the result matters.
Sloth, I realize that this is an entirely different scenario but I’m curious as to what your response would be in a situation such as this ( I struggle myself between “moral absolutism” and a more utilitarian philosophy…) -
5 men are in a submarine.
For whatever reason ( let’s just leave the details out ), the submarine is trapped and the men are running out of oxygen.
Help is on it’s way and will arrive in a set, determined, amount of time. Everyone is aware of this.
This given amount of time is too long for all of the men to last as they will use up all the oxygen. They are also all aware this.
If there was only 4 they could in fact survive until helped reached.
No one is willing to sacrifice themselves.
What do you do?
Let’s also assume that the predicament is in no way the fault of any of the men.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
Better that than murder someone else. [/quote]
Murder is unjustified. Killing is not. As the moral actor in this situation, your choices are limited. Blood will be spilled. Its better that one should die than twenty. Will twenty people be murdered because you couldn’t bring yourself do a very bad thing for a very good reason?[/quote]
Why are you asking what people would do then trying to influence their answers?
[quote]Legionary wrote:
You are in a remote mountain village. A group of terrorists has lined up 20 people from the village; they plan on shooting them for collaborating with the enemy. Since you are not from the village, you will not be killed. Taking advantage of your position, you plead with the terrorists not to carry out their plan. Finally, you convince the leader that it is not necessary to kill all 20. He takes a gun, empties it of all its bullets except one, and then hands it to you. He has decided to kill only one villager to set an example to the rest.
As an honored guest and outsider, you will decide who will be killed, and you will carry out the deed. The terrorists conclude with a warning; if you refuse to kill the villager, then they will revert back to the original plan of killing all 20. And if you try any funny business, they will kill the 20 villagers and then kill you. What should you do?
Your Options
Take the gun, select a villager, and kill him or her.
Refuse the terrorists’ offer and walk away from the situation.[/quote]
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
Better that than murder someone else. [/quote]
Murder is unjustified. Killing is not. As the moral actor in this situation, your choices are limited. Blood will be spilled. Its better that one should die than twenty. Will twenty people be murdered because you couldn’t bring yourself do a very bad thing for a very good reason?[/quote]
Sloth is a Catholic.
Catholic morality is deontological.
He is NOT the only moral agent in this situation, the terrorists are too and the villagers blood is on them.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
Better that than murder someone else. [/quote]
Murder is unjustified. Killing is not. As the moral actor in this situation, your choices are limited. Blood will be spilled. Its better that one should die than twenty. Will twenty people be murdered because you couldn’t bring yourself do a very bad thing for a very good reason?[/quote]
Sloth is a Catholic.
Catholic morality is deontological.
He is NOT the only moral agent in this situation, the terrorists are too and the villagers blood is on them. [/quote]
True but you are the only one in this scenario with a true sense of freedom of action. This is not real life but an ethical scenario. The terrorists will merely react as a result of your choice.
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
Better that than murder someone else. [/quote]
Murder is unjustified. Killing is not. As the moral actor in this situation, your choices are limited. Blood will be spilled. Its better that one should die than twenty. Will twenty people be murdered because you couldn’t bring yourself do a very bad thing for a very good reason?[/quote]
Why are you asking what people would do then trying to influence their answers?
Why is it a good reason?
[/quote]
For the sake of argument. I could be playing devil’s advocate as far as anyone knows. 1 person is dead as opposed to 20. You saved 19 lives. As a Catholic do you agree with Sloth’s line of reasoning against this?
[quote]SexMachine wrote:
Why can’t I pretend to accept then aim the weapon at the terrorist leader’s head and demand they release everyone?[/quote]
You have a single round of ammunition and the terrorist leader and his cohorts have automatic weapons. These men are not afraid to die for their cause. You would simply add yourself to the body count.[/quote]
Better that than murder someone else. [/quote]
Murder is unjustified. Killing is not. As the moral actor in this situation, your choices are limited. Blood will be spilled. Its better that one should die than twenty. Will twenty people be murdered because you couldn’t bring yourself do a very bad thing for a very good reason?[/quote]
Why are you asking what people would do then trying to influence their answers?
Why is it a good reason?
[/quote]
For the sake of argument. I could be playing devil’s advocate as far as anyone knows. 1 person is dead as opposed to 20. You saved 19 lives. As a Catholic do you agree with Sloth’s line of reasoning against this?[/quote]
Yes.
You still haven’t answered my question: Why is killing 1 to save 19 a good thing?