I don't think you can escape the dilemma by calling the outcome uncertain unless you believe the uncertainty is inherent in and core to the basic idea. In other words, unless you believe that it's impossible to construct a scenario to ask the same basic question without having the same amount of uncertainty, the issue has been dodged, not addressed.
For instance, let's say the scenario was thus:
Dr. Evil has placed 5 people in a pit, which is slowly being filled with water so that the sharks with frickin' laser beams can be released. Dr. Evil's incompetent henchmen have left a pulley in the ceiling above the pit, which is threaded with a lightweight but strong cable. You have one end of the cable, and the other end is in the pit.
Each of the people in the pit weighs 130 pounds. You weigh 110 pounds. As the pit fills, someone you've never met wanders into Dr. Evil's lair. It's Jared, who has recently switched from an all-subway diet to a diet consisting entirely of deep-fried snickers bars and sugar-coated lard. He now spends his days in channel surfing looking for tv ads in which he appears. As a result of his lifestyle change, he tips the scales at 700 lbs.
You have a choice: do you kill/incapacitate Jared and use his body to pull the 5 people to safety, or not?
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-07-31 07:39 pm (UTC)I don't think you can escape the dilemma by calling the outcome uncertain unless you believe the uncertainty is inherent in and core to the basic idea. In other words, unless you believe that it's impossible to construct a scenario to ask the same basic question without having the same amount of uncertainty, the issue has been dodged, not addressed.
For instance, let's say the scenario was thus:
Dr. Evil has placed 5 people in a pit, which is slowly being filled with water so that the sharks with frickin' laser beams can be released. Dr. Evil's incompetent henchmen have left a pulley in the ceiling above the pit, which is threaded with a lightweight but strong cable. You have one end of the cable, and the other end is in the pit.
Each of the people in the pit weighs 130 pounds. You weigh 110 pounds. As the pit fills, someone you've never met wanders into Dr. Evil's lair. It's Jared, who has recently switched from an all-subway diet to a diet consisting entirely of deep-fried snickers bars and sugar-coated lard. He now spends his days in channel surfing looking for tv ads in which he appears. As a result of his lifestyle change, he tips the scales at 700 lbs.
You have a choice: do you kill/incapacitate Jared and use his body to pull the 5 people to safety, or not?