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Forums - General Discussion - Would you sacrifice a life to save ten?

Johann on 12 September 2009
trashleg said:
Johann said:

Oh, please.

If you're not that fond of your mother, it makes it even worse.

"She needed help so I helped?" If you had no emotions at all about the situation you simply wouldn't do it. Do you need proof? Okay, here it goes: You telling this story to a total stranger on the internet makes me think that you're either proud to have done this and feel good about yourself, or you're disappointed that she ended up not sorting out her problems. Maybe part of the reward you were expecting was to see her get back on her feet, and now that she hasn't you feel a little cheated, I seriously don't know. Either way, you're not completely emotionally indiferent to the situation. You wouldn't do this if you were.

why is it so hard for you to take in?

i don't need a total stranger on the internet to tell me (wrongly) what my justifications were for doing something, i wasn't telling you the story to make me feel proud or whatever, i wasn't just coming online shouting "hey guess what i did today?!?!". i told you the story to back up my claim that some people do a good thing because its the good thing to do.

why are you so difficult?!

BOLD: i already told you, some people don't do things for any sort of reward. the fact that your last post was entirely based on my predicted reward suggests to me that you don't read an argument properly, or maybe you're just too stubborn to accept the alternative to your own argument.

Sorry for making assumptions about you. I guess that was rude.

I think we just have to agree to disagree on this one, not because I'm completely incapable of changing my mind (which by the way, you're not the first person to suggest), but because I would probably go too far (as I already have) to make my point. Of course you don't need some stranger on the internet telling you what are the motivations behind your deeds.

It's just what I believe. Don't think it's such a bad thing, to tell you the truth.



Quem disse que a boca é tua?

Qual é, Dadinho...?

Dadinho é o caralho! Meu nome agora é Zé Pequeno!

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Lolcislaw on 12 September 2009

It all really depends on circumstances, looking at your example i wouldnt probably do it but there are just so many scenarios in life there is no point talking about unviersal morality because people make decions based on circumstances.



Kantor on 12 September 2009
Reasonable said:
Khuutra said:
Reasonable said:

I was actually owning up to the fact that I'd be comfortable making that choice, not judging whether it was right or wrong.  Guess you better hope you never end up working for me!

....Clearly!

Hey, most of my men make it back alive...

I must commend you. Business Consultancy has a very high mortality rate



(Former) Lead Moderator and (Eternal) VGC Detective

Vanversive on 12 September 2009
trashleg said:
Johann said:
trashleg said:
Johann said:
trashleg said:
Johann said:
trashleg said:
Johann said:
Everyone wants to be the hero... this is so fucking typical. I hate humanity.
Surely you wouldn't send somebody to their death, cuz that wouldn't look cool, but you're fully prepared to give up your life, right? Selfish hypocrites...

but someone who would send another to his death, while he himself avoids the situation, is a coward. fair enough if he says "i wouldnt go in there, so i wouldnt expect anyone else to go in either", but if he's protecting himself whilst sending in others, thats just selfish.

And wanting to die a hero isn't?

its not heroics, its called valuing human life.

If it was just about valuing life, it wouldn't matter if it were you or somebody else.

Have you ever heard of ethical egoism?

but to make such a decision over that person's life, to assume that such a decision is your own to make, also seems a bit off to me.

no i haven't, can you explain it to me?

I thought this was all assuming that the person would know that their giving up their life.

 

Anyway, for the egoism thing, it's related to the notion that there are no (completely) selfless good deeds. You wouldn't do something nice for someone else for absolutely no reward, even if the reward is feeling good about yourself.

 

without bigging myself up here, i have a story for you.. i gave up my chance to go to university so that i could lend my mum £700 a few months ago so she could pay the rent.. because she kept dipping into the rent money to buy herself cigarettes and clothes. then i decided to work really hard so i COULD go to uni, i had to get a summer job and i had to go extend my overdraft and take out a credit card to ensure that i was able to go, and now im in shitloads of debt and i don't feel good about myself, because i worry about my financial situation and my mum still smokes and hasn't paid back anything yet and still spends money like its free. so there have been absolutely no rewards for me out of this whole thing.

so believe it or not, there ARE people out there who do selfless acts.

Are you sure thats not just be cause you felt obliged to do that because it was your mother?



The resistance

Vanversive on 12 September 2009

To answer the OP for me it would have to be 10 people that meant something to me. Unless I had some sort of super powers 10 random people in a fire wouldn't even cross my mind. Might be a good spectacle to watch though, I mean how often do you see large buildings on fire. (well a lot in my home city of flint michigan but Ive been gone from there for years now).



The resistance

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The Shaman of Sexy on 12 September 2009

Yes, thats not a moral question, its a logical one.



Akvod on 12 September 2009

Just having read the Violinist story in my Philosophy class, can't you argue, from the author's perspective, that killing 1 random person, in order to save 10 is an unjust killing? The 1 person is not obligated to sacrifice himself in order to save 10 people, you cannot take away that person's choice, and force him to be altruistic.

If it was a situation of lets say 1 person falling on the left side of a building, and 10 falling on the right and as a super hero you could only go one side, then it's not really a "sacrifice" because all 11 were doomed to die anyway.



big_boss on 12 September 2009

10 lives for my one? Yes but anothers No. Because my means little. I stock shelves for a living so I don't contribute enough in this world to change things in a positive way. Those 10 lives could do more then what I could in my lifetime. The 10 lives I save would go on and tell their famliy and friends what I did and inspire them to do great things for themselves and others even if that means sacrificing something to do it. Then each one of those 10 would inspire 10 more and that cycle would (I hope) continue for generations just because of the one thing that I did.



GamerTag/PSN ID JoshmyersBV (please add me I have 2 friends on Xbox Live)

WessleWoggle on 13 September 2009

It's not my area.



SnesTea on 13 September 2009
Slimebeast said:
tedsteriscool said:

@ slimebeast:

"The problem with [humanity] is stupidity. I'm not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself?"

Who said that? Hitler, Mao, Ghandi... Dalai Lama?

Opposite ends of extreme, well done.