(February 20, 2015 at 3:50 pm)Losty Wrote: It's a question I truly struggle with. Not that I think I'll ever be faced with the situation, but...I mean if you're starving to death...can you really be blamed for killing and eating someone?
I just can't decide how I feel about it.
As far as the law is concerned, the matter is settled.
But think about it: Suppose someone threatened me with death, if I refused to torture people to death. Would that make it okay for me to torture people to death? Should I be willing to do anything in order to continue to live?
Or, to use the example of starvation. How would you feel if your child was on the boat with me, and I decided to go against what I have said is right, and I killed him or her in order to eat. Would you be okay with that? Should you be okay with that?
Or think about you being on the boat. If the principle is to be, it is okay to murder someone if one is very, very hungry, then the other people may decide to kill you first. Is that okay with you?
Think about what principles you would like for everyone to follow, and then I think you may come to see the wisdom of the law as it presently stands on this issue.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
