SmurfAquamarineBodies he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Well let's say this happened. You know that it will be at least 30 days before a ship arrives to help you, based on your knowledge of shipping schedules, etc., etc. The food party can only keep your whole party alive for 15 days, and that's stretching it. You know this. You also know that the food can keep you and a few others alive for the whole time it will take a ship to get there. So what do you do? Accept your death because you don't have enough spine to let some people die to save some? Choose some people to live, knowing that the others will die? And make that decision every time you eat? Tell someone else and leave the decision to them? It really is an interesting problem to think about, and looking at it right now, I would probably choose a form of #2. I would probably rationalize to myself that I wasn't really playing God with other people's lives, it was just the perfectly logical thing to do. I imagine that when faced with the very real possibility of death, most people would pick #2 or #3. Who are the people? Are there any criminals? Doctors? If I didn't know any of that then I would choose based purely on who the most amusing was. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThirdGen Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curious Anamaximder he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 All right. Day number 2 of trying to make new friends. Here we go. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathoth Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 I wish I had any ideas, but I dont XD Try some ridiculous shennanigans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curious Anamaximder he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 I wish I had any ideas, but I dont XD Try some ridiculous shennanigans. My strategy is being nice. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) Good strategy. Try "hi I'm venture Mistborn. What's your name? Tell me something cool about yourself". People like talking about themselves. Re moral problems I don't have time to reply right now. Not ignoring. Edited November 13, 2015 by Delightful 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Honor Spren she/her Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) My strategy is being nice. Honor spren's guide to making friends:1. Find a group of people that seem likable. 2. Make them cookies. 3. Acknowledge their thanks, then sit with them at lunch time, listening in on conversation without saying anything. 4. Repeat step 3 for two years. 5. Disregard all of the steps above, and never listen to Honor Spren again for friend advice, because she has no clue what she's doing. Edited November 13, 2015 by The Honor Spren 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathoth Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Morzathoths advice:1: Kidnap the principle 2: Replace the principle with a walrus 3: Hilarity ensues 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delightful Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 1. Hand out fairy dust 2 watch everyone laugh at your immaturity 3 watch their faces as dust works 4..... 5...... 6....... 7 profit! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sovereign Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 WILSOOOOON Poor Wilson... I reject your binary choices. There is always another way secret! Fixed that for you. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Grrrr. People like you are why I can never have discussions about things like this. Like the train example (kill 50 people or 10), where people are like, "This is such an unrealistic situation." I don't even have an answer. It's a grim question. Most people would rather not think too hard on it. For the record, my answer is "Use my sonic screwdriver and divert the train so it hits the maniac who orchestrated this deranged scenario." If you think about it, all of this loophole exploitation says something profound about humanity: We will exhaust every option available before we make one of two morally repugnant choices. Humanity, by and large, wants to make choices that benefit many, rather than selfish choices that benefit few. I like your interpretation. And yours is the right answer--do what you have to do in the spur of the moment, but the world is never is binary and optionless as it looks. Binary moral questions are kind of ridiculous at heart, because they assume we live in a simple reality when our universe is anything but. I get what they're trying to accomplish, but our goal should always be to think outside the box and save as many lives as possible. Personally, I think trying to loophole your way out of the island situation is a much more responsible use of your time than choosing who to let starve to death. If I were stuck on an island, I'd much rather go out berry picking with Twi than stick with whoever's gonna kill me so the canned food doesn't run out. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Edgedancer he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 My totally not helpful comment on the train scenario is that quickly diverting a running train would almost certainly end with it derailing, killing the passengers anyway. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curious Anamaximder he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) Good strategy. Try "hi I'm venture Mistborn. What's your name? Tell me something cool about yourself". People like talking about themselves. Re moral problems I don't have time to reply right now. Not ignoring. Honor spren's guide to making friends: 1. Find a group of people that seem likable. 2. Make them cookies. 3. Acknowledge their thanks, then sit with them at lunch time, listening in on conversation without saying anything. 4. Repeat step 3 for two years. 5. Disregard all of the steps above, and never listen to Honor Spren again for friend advice, because she has no clue what she's doing. Morzathoths advice: 1: Kidnap the principle 2: Replace the principle with a walrus 3: Hilarity ensues Thank you all. How would I get a walrus into the school? Edited November 13, 2015 by Venture Mistborn 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasimir he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Thank you all. How would I get a walrus into the school? Like this? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zathoth Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Thank you all. How would I get a walrus into the school? ... .... you see.... I didnt think about that... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Can't watch that video in America. Or so it says. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasimir he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Can't watch that video in America. Or so it says. Well, then clearly your country doesn't want you to watch it. Can't help you there, I'm afraid We dead people get to see everything! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orlion Blight he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Edit: Just a warning: guys, please warn me if I'm getting a bit too direct/aggressive. As it may or may not be apparent by now, this is what I do in uni, and we have very different discursive norms in a philosophy class and when conversing among philosophers than in what is probably a friendly forum discussion. So if you think I'm pressing too hard or in a way that makes people feel uncomfortable, just let me know and I'll remember to back off. I'm not always that good at this RL/forum separation, especially when we start going into my area. Personally, I like it. You have to be somewhat direct/forward in conversations such as these, that better serves the purpose of improving or authenticating your argument.For example, I have had some philosophy classes in the university but it is not my field. I like to read some books on it from time to time, but the selection is slim, so I usually have to rely on what little I remember from class and my interpretation. Case in point: I think I've had fifteen minutes of instruction with regards to Rawl's veil of ignorance in an ethics class. We did not deal with it as being strictly about distributive justice and I have often thought of it as an improvement on Kant's first categorical imperative. One learns from forward discussion! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kasimir he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 (edited) Personally, I like it. You have to be somewhat direct/forward in conversations such as these, that better serves the purpose of improving or authenticating your argument. For example, I have had some philosophy classes in the university but it is not my field. I like to read some books on it from time to time, but the selection is slim, so I usually have to rely on what little I remember from class and my interpretation. Case in point: I think I've had fifteen minutes of instruction with regards to Rawl's veil of ignorance in an ethics class. We did not deal with it as being strictly about distributive justice and I have often thought of it as an improvement on Kant's first categorical imperative. One learns from forward discussion! To be honest, it's beginning to be a concern in the discipline, because there are worries that the way we engage each other is partly behind why we are the humanities major with a ratio of women-to-men comparable to physics and mathematics, which is pretty darn pathetic when you consider that the ratio is much healthier (i.e. reflecting the population) in neighbouring fields like history and so on. There have been also concerns about the way we engage (some likening it to bloodsport) so in general, I prefer to be cautious on this front. Thanks though There's definitely a connection between Rawls and the categorical imperative, simply because he wants to model his theory after some aspects of the deontic view. I would say the main difficulty is just more or less that the connection between ethics and justice is a pretty messy one, and it often is at the mercy of what theory of justice/ethics a person subscribes to. (See: we can agree that upholding justice is ethical, for instance...) We didn't get to do Rawls in an ethics context, so unfortunately, the connection to Kant was a brief mention in class before we went on. We more or less engaged his ideas on how distributively just societies should be structured, and whether or not Rawls can effectively block the threat of an intuitively unjust society stemming out from his principles. (And of course, when one mentions Rawls, one must mention Nozick's objections on the grounds of the free market...) Hopefully! Edited November 13, 2015 by Kasimir 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orlion Blight he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 To be honest, it's beginning to be a concern in the discipline, because there are worries that the way we engage each other is partly behind why we are the humanities major with a ratio of women-to-men comparable to physics and mathematics, which is pretty darn pathetic when you consider that the ratio is much healthier (i.e. reflecting the population) in neighbouring fields like history and so on. There have been also concerns about the way we engage (some likening it to bloodsport) so in general, I prefer to be cautious on this front. Thanks though I believe it has a lot to do with the current culture in society and in college. In the first, there has been a prevalent idea that fields that are heavy on mathematics/logic are better suited to the male mind and that females, in general, are not as capable in this as men. This is erroneous, there is nothing to demonstrate this aside from "the Powers that Be" say it is so. However, you are left with women constantly being bombarded with the idea that they are somehow naturally less rational than men. They are told they are failures even before they enter college. This is changing, but it's new enough that we will still see the effects of the old social order for a while yet. The other issue seems to be that college is more and more being viewed as a "job training" institute and not a learning institute. As a result, you are seeing the humanities being belittled as being "pointless" or "valueless". Essentially, the viewpoint that a class is worthless unless it directly contributes to you getting a high salary job is prevalent and getting more so. The first point probably has more to do with your concern whereas the second point is just me on my own soapbox. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Patar he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 Art really can be fascinating. In my art class we are learning about The Mask of Hanuman, which represents a monkey-hero follower of Rama. It represents a divine monkey. THAT IS AWESOME 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 I'm sitting on the couch. Mollie is perched on the back, sleeping with her head resting on my shoulder. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kobold King he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 We drove past a tiny playground today. The ground had been covered in dry gravel, a couple of dusty old slides and swingsets were standing crookedly on the rocks, and the entire thing was surrounded by black iron bars with pointed tips on their tops. I'm no architect, but I don't think a playground should look like it was designed by Vlad the Impaler. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orlion Blight he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 We drove past a tiny playground today. The ground had been covered in dry gravel, a couple of dusty old slides and swingsets were standing crookedly on the rocks, and the entire thing was surrounded by black iron bars with pointed tips on their tops. I'm no architect, but I don't think a playground should look like it was designed by Vlad the Impaler. Come on, let children be children! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mailliw73 he/him Posted November 13, 2015 Report Share Posted November 13, 2015 I think your own life always comes first, and actively killing is worse than letting someone die, even if the outcome is the same. Also I think killing is only ever acceptable in self-defence. With the trolley problem, I'm drawing a difference between acting to save your life, of which the outcome is that people are killed, vs you've already diverted onto track 2 so you will survive, and if you divert further onto track 3 you are choosing the lives of track 2 people over track 3 people. People dying is no longer a consequence of you saving yourself, it's become an active choice. I don't think my own life always comes first. In fact, there are many situations in which I'd be willing to die if it meant the others lived. That doesn't mean I'll try to get myself killed, but that I'm willing to take it if necessary. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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