Would You Torture a Baby to End World Suffering?

[cowiz]

Philosophically that might be true but let's face it there are a whole planet worth of suffering babies, If you could stop it all by causing the suffering of ONE .Then I call you a coward
if you dither about with Choices ,You might be the one to explain to that child when it grows up why it lives in a world full of pain .

silly question really and know I know that it's an RD thing I have even less interest ,If a tree falls in a forest etc etc etc

Don't think it's silly at all, it's a classic morality question.

See The Trolley Problem

[klr]

Philosophically that might be true but let's face it there are a whole planet worth of suffering babies, If you could stop it all by causing the suffering of ONE .Then I call you a coward
if you dither about with Choices ,You might be the one to explain to that child when it grows up why it lives in a world full of pain .

silly question really and know I know that it's an RD thing I have even less interest ,If a tree falls in a forest etc etc etc

Don't think it's silly at all, it's a classic morality question.

See The Trolley Problem

Which may well have been one of the cases covered in TGD.

... This scenario is similar to the fact that whenever a crime is in progress and someone calls the police, even though it is known well in advance that calls to police each year end up creating pedestrian and motorist deaths due to accidents, very few people would consider disbanding the police to ensure that no innocents should die en-route to a crime scene.

[Arse]

Philosophically that might be true but let's face it there are a whole planet worth of suffering babies, If you could stop it all by causing the suffering of ONE .Then I call you a coward
if you dither about with Choices ,You might be the one to explain to that child when it grows up why it lives in a world full of pain .

silly question really and know I know that it's an RD thing I have even less interest ,If a tree falls in a forest etc etc etc

Its got nothing to do with cowardice, I just think its wrong. It doesn't take bravery to do something you don't agree with doing, so bringing cowardice into it is a red herring.

[cowiz]

Which may well have been one of the cases covered in TGD.

Possibly, I've not read it in a while.

[Feck]

It's a classic question alright , But If you are really gonna tell me that the numerical argument is not true on the grounds of some Philosophy then fuck off back to your Ivory tower

The question WAS if you had a chance to end WORLD SUFFERING .........would you ? If you choose NOT to end WORLD suffering then you had better come up with a better reason ........than the rights of one individual ...........The end does not justify the means I get that, but you are talking about what your morality would feel comfortable with
END WORLD
SUFFERING?
HELL YES. By any means I don't know ,?But End World suffering at the cost of pain to ONE life ,if it was Your life would you give it up ? The answer I hope Is YES , Why do you not
extend that to the hypothetical baby ?

[Arse]

If it was my life, no I wouldn't give it up. I didn't create any world suffering, why the hell should I give up my life to end it? Possibly my own selfish reaction to the idea of such a sacrifice is why I'm not willing to take that choice on behalf of a baby.

[Feck]

So that makes me wonder ...............Thanks Given the chance for BILLIONS of people to live pain and suffering free ......
You would actually refuse .... because YOU are ..................
Words fail me

[cowiz]

HELL YES. By any means I don't know ,?But End World suffering at the cost of pain to ONE life ,if it was Your life would you give it up ? The answer I hope Is YES , Why do you not
extend that to the hypothetical baby ?

I can choose, the baby cannot. Would you cause harm to the baby to end the drought in Africa? Or to ensure that gas stays cheap? Where do you draw the line?

[Arse]

So that makes me wonder ...............Thanks Given the chance for BILLIONS of people to live pain and suffering free ......
You would actually refuse .... because YOU are ..................
Words fail me

Yes I would refuse. If you want a sacrifice to end world suffering choose some bastard like Robert Mugabe. I don't see why a harmless person like me should give up their one and only life.

[Feck]

Thankfully I am not in a position to choose the odds , would I torture a baby to save the lives of 2 or 3 other babies NO , but the OP was 1 vs WORLD suffering !
This argument has been used in Palestine ,Hamas have have killed 10o people so it it is OK to kill 1000s of people , The point IS this The numerical argument DOES count
If my vet told me that Feck had a virus that would kill every dog in the Uk then he would be an ex- hound
The Op was stupid BUT If we are going to play what if games then standing on the philosophical points Is just an exercise in Who can take the high ground and validate it with pseudo-morality ,My death,yours,Achtlands, Fecks when placed up against WORLD suffering ? really ? fuck don't want to go out for a drink with you in a rough area of town .

[klr]

Let's see where this argument goes in a few weeks when the anniversary of you-know-what comes around again, shall we?

[cowiz]

fuck don't want to go out for a drink with you in a rough area of town .

I'd run away screaming like a girl at the first sign of trouble.

I am not taking a PETA position here arguing that animals life is as sacrosanct as a humans! My pups would get it in the neck too if they were a danger to even one other living being.

But you do bring the numbers argument into the equation and at some point you tip the balance from it is immoral to torture x babies to save y people, but moral to torture n babies to save n+n people. What is the number?

[Feck]

NoT sure of the numbers but the OP was about 9 billion -1 good enough odds ?

[Chinaski]

I think Kant says that it's immoral to involve a third party against their will or without their consent. However, I don't know if I fully agree with Kant. I'd probably do it, yeah.

[Don't Panic]

I've thought about this for a while and rather disturbingly(for me, at least) I think I could do it. I'd probably bite a bullet afterwards, but for the chance to end all world suffering, it'd be worth it.