Ethics [Tuesday, August 30, 2011, 1st period]

[sith_happened]

"Good morning," Anakin said, sweeping into the classroom where the students had been assigned seats. "I'm Anakin Skywalker and this is Ethics. If you're in the wrong place, now's the time to get up and flee."

If you were in the right place, it wasn't bad advice either, depending on Anakin's mood. He paced in front of their desks as he spoke, Jedi robe swirling behind him. "Most classes this week focus on introductions, but there are a few familiar faces in the classroom already and I'll figure out the rest of you as we go along. Fandom, as you might have realized already, is a multi-dimensional nexus where beings from many different places and times come together." He made sure to look each student in the eyes as he spoke. "As such, what you may feel to be moral and immoral might be completely different than the person sitting next to you. I encourage discussion, even heated discussion, but it must be phrased in a constructive way. Responses like 'yes, but that's dumb,' 'yes, but you're dumb', or punching someone are not constructive."

He'd done all of those before, but this wasn't about the ethics of the Ethics teacher.

"I have no problem at all sending you to detention if you irritate me," he concluded. "Now, the unpleasant administrative things out of the way, let's start with our first ethical scenario: If you had to choose between killing one person in order to save five others, or doing nothing even though you know that doing nothing means that those five people would die before your eyes, what would you do? And what do you think would be the right thing to do?"

His eyes slid to Katniss assuming she was there. "We touch on unpleasant subjects in this class, some of which might not be all that hypothetical to your life's experience," he added. "If you prefer not to discuss a particular scenario, just let me know by shaking your head and I'll skip you until the next week."

Anakin clasped his hands together. "Now, let's begin."

Comments

Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[sith_happened]

"If you had to choose between killing one person in order to save five others, or doing nothing even though you know that doing nothing means that those five people would die before your eyes, what would you do? And what do you think would be the right thing to do?"

Feel free to respond to other students' replies.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[sedlexduralex.livejournal.com]

"Kill the person," Jocelyn replied. "The good of the society's more important in the end." She paused then continued. "Besides, I don't want to be the one explaining to those five people's family that I could've saved them and I just thought I wouldn't."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[sith_happened]

"Does it matter to you who the person you're killing might be?" Anakin asked, "or the five others?"

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[annieadderall.livejournal.com]

"Um, I think it would depend on why I'd have to kill that one person," said Annie, really thinking about it. "If say, one person was going to turn into a zombie and he was going to attack the other five, then I'd think that's a pretty good reason."

She paused. "Though I don't really think I could kill anyone. I wouldn't last a day in jail."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[sith_happened]

"Is there any other reason beyond imminent zombie attack that might get you to kill someone else?" Anakin asked.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[hasadestiny]

"I'd take a third option," Lex said. "Ensure that no one dies."

Enjoy that lingering idealism while it lasted.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[sedlexduralex.livejournal.com]

"The easy way out's hardly ever possible," Jocelyn pointed out, just a note of scorn in her voice.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure, cheat. "Can I change my vote and go with his?"

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[sith_happened]

Anakin arched up an eyebrow. "And how would you ensure that?"

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[exactlyaverage.livejournal.com]

"Well, I can't easily make that decision without knowing the situation," Jack argued. "In general? I'd save the many over the one. However I would qualify that by saying I'd need to know the who, why and what before I made a final decision."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[trickydemigod.livejournal.com]

"Depends on who that one person was," Luke said honestly. "I mean, my initial instinct is to kill that one person but if that person was someone I cared about...I don't know, I'd probably let the five other people die."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

Kenzi was listening, and she liked Annie's answer, but she also liked Luke's answer, and .... "Dude, is there a right thing to do there? I kinda think there's just surviving and not-surviving. It all sucks." She shrugged a little, looking glum. "I'd probably kill the one person, and then go throw up. Except if it were someone I cared about I'd probably wuss out and then five people would die. Whatcha gonna do."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[lockestheway]

Peter certainly looked like he was thinking about this very hard. "Kill the one person," he said at last. "If all other possibilities are exhausted. If mulish inaction is going to cause so much more death, it's a case of one life against five. It'd be hard, but it'd make sense, wouldn't it?"

The key word had been 'looked', as Peter wasn't so much talking from ethics as a lack of ethics. Hell, if the one person could get him ahead, he'd have let the other five of them die. Probably.

Or was that another one of those things where his own overeager ruthlessness would shoot him in the foot? Oh, great. Now he was thinking about it.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[tripledmyself.livejournal.com]

"Well, if I was all right, had my all my bits and pieces together, I probably wouldn't care about one person or five people," Nathan said, shrugging lazily. "We all gotta go sometime, right?"

Nathan shrugged again. He'd done all right around dead people lately so he thought his stomach could handle seeing them dead. Killing them was different. He sucked at violence. "'Cept for me, of course. Cuz, I've got the power!"

Listening to American music meant he half sung that last line since it was almost a law that it had to be done like that.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[godgavemecable.livejournal.com]

"If we go just by the math, saving the five people is the 'right' thing to do, I guess," Toby said slowly. "But what if the one person was someone I was really close to, and the five people were, I don't know, criminals or something? Then I think I'd choose the one person. And there's the fact that I don't think- I don't think I could kill anyone." But could he watch them die? He didn't know the answer to that one either.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[new-it-girl.livejournal.com]

Hanna felt it was way too early to be thinking about things like morality, but she gave an answer anyway. "I think I'd save the five. But if the one person was someone I care about, I'd make sure that person survived. I'm selfish that way."

She was just being honest.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[twintuitionist.livejournal.com]

"I guess you'd have to kill the person, because one death is better than five," Juliet said, chin on her hands. "But ... if it was my brother, I don't think I could do it no matter what."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[holy-daughter.livejournal.com]

Lucrezia mulled the question over. "Do I know any of these individuals?" she asked. "It would be unfortunate for five people to die, but it isn't my fault even if my inaction doesn't save them. Actively murdering someone would be my on my head. I'm not certain I'd care to bloody my hands to decide who lives and who dies."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[walkswithcoyote]

"I'd want more information," Mercy said quietly. "Who are the people, what's the situation? If possible I'd try very hard to find a way to keep all of them alive, but if I have to answer... In most cases, everything else being equal, the death of one to save five makes the most sense."

Bran had certainly been in that position more than once. Everyone who grew up with werewolves knew that sometimes death had to happen to save others. Didn't make it easy, but it was something you learned to live with.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[wasthecuteone]

Once Petra had had a few minutes to think about it, she said, "I think it would depend? Like if it was five of my friends and that one Corporation goon who went to Yale, sorry, dude, you're snake bait, but if it was one of my friends and five Corporation goons obviously I'm saving my friend. But if we're not talking about my friends versus Corporation goons I think I would try to save everyone."

This totally made sense. If you were Petra.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[perilless.livejournal.com]

Rosella frowned a little as she listened to everyone else's response, wondering if people realized that this was a hypothetical question. Of course details like who the people were would matter in real life, but...well, hypothetical.

She sighed when her turn came up. "In a situation as such," she offered, "I would most likely be inclined to kill the one person. There would be no reason not to unless you wanted those other five people dead, but, if that were the case, you really should do it yourself anyway."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[knight-fatali.livejournal.com]

Seifer sat back during the discussion and listened to the others. "Like the others, I'd want details, time permitting. Who, what, and why. Those details would mean a lot in whether or not I would do anything." He paused, and then grinned. "Oh, and how much I'm getting paid."

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[i-am-the-rat.livejournal.com]

That... was a difficult question. And not one he really wanted to have an answer for. "How far away is my backup?"

Because the right answer, in every situation, was to let Brock do the killing.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[richieryan.livejournal.com]

"I think the right thing to do would be let somebody else make that call who knows what the hell is going on," Richie said. "How am I supposed to know if that one life is worth more than those five or the other way around? Maybe the five are serial killers or they eat babies or something. I don't think I'm qualified to make those sorts of decisions. I'm not going to start going around killing people."

Oh, Richie. Little do you know.

Re: Answer the discussion question! [8/30]

[whitequeensfire.livejournal.com]

"I don't know," Angelica said, twisting the bracelet on her wrist. "I don't want people to die, but I don't think I could kill anyone."

Emma would not be pleased.