RE: End and the Means
January 28, 2009 at 7:54 pm
(This post was last modified: January 28, 2009 at 7:57 pm by bozo.)
(January 28, 2009 at 5:40 pm)Tiberius Wrote: The ends only justify the means if the means had multiple paths, and the chosen path ended with the greater of the ends. For example, a train is hurtling towards certain doom, and the only way of preventing disaster is to send it onto another set of tracks. However, there is someone caught on the tracks and nobody can get to them in time (nor can they free themselves).Adrian, what if the one strapped to the track was the most prominent atheist there has ever been?
So you have the choice of sacrificing the one to save the many, or sacrificing the many to save the one. In this circumstance I could positively say that I would choose to divert the train, killing the person on the tracks. I probably wouldn't like doing it, but the ends justify the means.
