Monday, October 6, 2014
KANT symposia
In today's symposia discussion we where faced with the "classroom dilemma" in which we choose to live or kill the classroom next to us. Most of the Mills in the classroom agreed that it was the right thing to push the button, because it is the rightful thing to do. Kant might argued that if we push the button we are willing to desecrate other human lives as a merely choice of death or keep living. Based on the prepositions it is in our duty to do the moral action; however, when faced with a situation like this what would be the moral action for everyone in both classrooms? What would be some questions or thoughts that would justify our action in the limited time we have to decide who lives and who dies?
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Though I agree that this situation should be thoroughly thought about before making a decision, I don't think Mill's reason behind pushing the button was just because it was the right thing to do. It deals more with to ensure the least pain inflicted on the greatest amount of people. With Kant's theory the process of considering every possible outcome would be too lengthy and would result in no one pushing the button. This would mean everyone would die and pain would be inflicted on a larger amount of people.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Kant's philosophy would leave at least the people that share the same room as him dead. I feel that if we were to push the button than the maxim of our action would be to kill the other people in the adjacent room.
ReplyDeleteThe situation should be thought about but you wouldn't have time to think the situation out thoroughly; therefore, ensuring that the greatest amount of people would receive the least amount of pain would be the correct thing to do. So I don't agree with the way Kant would go about dealing with this situation.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Kant, you should only act in a way you could rationally compel others to act. Or, in a way that it could be a moral law. According to this, in my opinion, Kant wouldn't push the button. You can"t rationally compel anyone to kill themselves and the people with them. You save a lot more lives by pushing the button. If you don't push the button not only would you and your classroom die, the people in the other classroom would also die. I think Mill and Kant would take the same side on this seeing as pushing the button for Mill would mean doing the most good for the greatest amount of people. Just because they are different philosophers doesn't mean they can't ever agree.
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