Morality Questions from Book of Questions

[H. Ross Peron]

I've taken these questions from the Book of Questions by Gregory Stock.

1. You discover your wonderful one year old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

2. You are given the power to kill people simply by thinking of their deaths and twice repeating the word "good-bye". People would die a natural death and no one would suspect you. Are there any situations in which you would use this power?

3. For an all expense paid, one week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off its wings? What about stepping on a cockroach?

4. Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world?

5. Assume there were a technological breakthrough that would allow people to travel as easily and cheaply between continents as between nearby cities. Unfortunately, there would also be 100,000 deaths a year from the device. Would you try to prevent its use?

6. Would you rather die peacefully among friends at age 50, or painfully and alone at age 80? Assume that most of the last 30 years would be good ones.

7. If this country were to suffer an unprovoked nuclear attack and would be totally obliterated in a matter of minutes, would you favour unleashing the U.S. nuclear arsenal upon the attackers?

8. While out one day, you are surprised to see your mother holding hands with someone who is clearly her lover. She notices you, runs over, and begs you not to say anything to your father. How would you respond? What would you do if your father later told you that he was going crazy because he kept thinking your mother was having an affair yet knew it was just his imagination?

9. If you knew a thermonuclear holocaust would occur in precisely 20 years and no one would survive it, how would you change your present life?

10. You are leading 100 people whose lives are in danger and you must choose between two courses of action. One would save only 90 people; the other would have a 50 percent chance of saving everyone but were it to fail everyone would die. Which would you choose?

11. If you could prevent either an earthquake in Peru that would kill 40,000 people, a crash at your local airport that would kill 200 people, or an automobile accident that would kill an acquaintance of yours, which would you choose?

12. One night you happen to be on a walk with a person who fits your "ideal" of a perfect romantic partner. Assuming you happened to have a gun on you at the time would you be willing to be suddenly approached by a mugger knowing you would shoot the mugger dead and cause your ideal mate to fall in love with you as a saviour? Assuming you are guaranteed to kill him and that the mugger is a common thug who would have been killed by the police the next day anyways.

[afleitch]

1. You discover your wonderful one year old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

No. Assuming all is good legally. I'm not wedded to the need for biological offspring for obvious reasons. Why would I 'swap' them out? I can't forget to love someone just because they aren't 'mine.'

2. You are given the power to kill people simply by thinking of their deaths and twice repeating the word "good-bye". People would die a natural death and no one would suspect you. Are there any situations in which you would use this power?

Yes, if requested in cases where someone wishes for help with assisted dying but the law forbids it.

3. For an all expense paid, one week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off its wings? What about stepping on a cockroach?

I'll intentionally kill an insect, as much as I try not to, for personal gain/comfort; if it's a nuisance, if it's a clothes moth etc. Some people get paid to do it. While ethically it's the same,  killing for a free holiday doesn't sit right with me.


4. Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world?

Yes. Me.

5. Assume there were a technological breakthrough that would allow people to travel as easily and cheaply between continents as between nearby cities. Unfortunately, there would also be 100,000 deaths a year from the device. Would you try to prevent its use?

No. Something like a million people a year die in car accidents. Such a device would likely reduce that number and unfortunately, safety is improved in all modes of transport precisely because of what is learned from accidents so that 100k number would come down. It's very matter of fact but there you go.

6. Would you rather die peacefully among friends at age 50, or painfully and alone at age 80? Assume that most of the last 30 years would be good ones.

No. If my quality of life is good until 79 years and 364 days but I find myself in that situation by chance on my 80th birthday then that's just how it is.

7. If this country were to suffer an unprovoked nuclear attack and would be totally obliterated in a matter of minutes, would you favour unleashing the U.S. nuclear arsenal upon the attackers?

Yes. (if I was American) It's self defense as much as I abhor nuclear weapons.

8. While out one day, you are surprised to see your mother holding hands with someone who is clearly her lover. She notices you, runs over, and begs you not to say anything to your father. How would you respond? What would you do if your father later told you that he was going crazy because he kept thinking your mother was having an affair yet knew it was just his imagination?

No comment.

9. If you knew a thermonuclear holocaust would occur in precisely 20 years and no one would survive it, how would you change your present life?

If I can't change what happens and I can't prove it to any authority that could stop it happening I'd continue as normal, rather than be considered mad or tortured by madness, retire early and wait for the day.

10. You are leading 100 people whose lives are in danger and you must choose between two courses of action. One would save only 90 people; the other would have a 50 percent chance of saving everyone but were it to fail everyone would die. Which would you choose?

There's risk and there's chance. The first is risk, with a tough payoff that I know of. There's certainty. The other is chance, where I'm playing a game with those lives so option 1.

11. If you could prevent either an earthquake in Peru that would kill 40,000 people, a crash at your local airport that would kill 200 people, or an automobile accident that would kill an acquaintance of yours, which would you choose?

The first, due to lives lost, lives ruined and devastation suffered for years after the event.

12. One night you happen to be on a walk with a person who fits your "ideal" of a perfect romantic partner. Assuming you happened to have a gun on you at the time would you be willing to be suddenly approached by a mugger knowing you would shoot the mugger dead and cause your ideal mate to fall in love with you as a saviour? Assuming you are guaranteed to kill him and that the mugger is a common thug who would have been killed by the police the next day anyways.

Absolutely not.

[Battista Minola 1616]

1. You discover your wonderful one year old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

Yes, I would try to do so.

2. You are given the power to kill people simply by thinking of their deaths and twice repeating the word "good-bye". People would die a natural death and no one would suspect you. Are there any situations in which you would use this power?

I reject the premise.

3. For an all expense paid, one week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off its wings? What about stepping on a cockroach?

No, there is something gratuitously malicious about planning this in advance that does not sit right to me, let alone the fact that the payoff is relatively meager.

4. Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world?

I reject the premise.

5. Assume there were a technological breakthrough that would allow people to travel as easily and cheaply between continents as between nearby cities. Unfortunately, there would also be 100,000 deaths a year from the device. Would you try to prevent its use?

This device appears to be less lethal than cars, so if that is its only setback, I would not.

6. Would you rather die peacefully among friends at age 50, or painfully and alone at age 80? Assume that most of the last 30 years would be good ones.

I would rather live thirty years more.

7. If this country were to suffer an unprovoked nuclear attack and would be totally obliterated in a matter of minutes, would you favour unleashing the U.S. nuclear arsenal upon the attackers?

I reject the premise.

8. While out one day, you are surprised to see your mother holding hands with someone who is clearly her lover. She notices you, runs over, and begs you not to say anything to your father. How would you respond? What would you do if your father later told you that he was going crazy because he kept thinking your mother was having an affair yet knew it was just his imagination?

I would try to make my parents discuss the thing with each other as openly as possible.

9. If you knew a thermonuclear holocaust would occur in precisely 20 years and no one would survive it, how would you change your present life?

I reject the premise.

10. You are leading 100 people whose lives are in danger and you must choose between two courses of action. One would save only 90 people; the other would have a 50 percent chance of saving everyone but were it to fail everyone would die. Which would you choose?

I reject the premise.

11. If you could prevent either an earthquake in Peru that would kill 40,000 people, a crash at your local airport that would kill 200 people, or an automobile accident that would kill an acquaintance of yours, which would you choose?

I reject the premise.

12. One night you happen to be on a walk with a person who fits your "ideal" of a perfect romantic partner. Assuming you happened to have a gun on you at the time would you be willing to be suddenly approached by a mugger knowing you would shoot the mugger dead and cause your ideal mate to fall in love with you as a saviour? Assuming you are guaranteed to kill him and that the mugger is a common thug who would have been killed by the police the next day anyways.

Someone who fits mine "ideal" of a perfect romantic partner would never consider me their saviour for illegally carrying guns in parks and shooting muggers dead.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

1. You discover your wonderful one year old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

No, but I would try to contact the biological parents and arrange for our kids to grow up as friends. There's a great Kore'eda Hirokazu movie with a premise similar to this.

2. You are given the power to kill people simply by thinking of their deaths and twice repeating the word "good-bye". People would die a natural death and no one would suspect you. Are there any situations in which you would use this power?

I'm tempted to say I'd only use it against people like dictators and serial rapists, but that kind of vigilantism can get out of hand real fast, so no, I wouldn't use it at all.

3. For an all expense paid, one week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off its wings? What about stepping on a cockroach?

No. I agree with both Andrew and Battista on this; I don't really see insects as moral agents but there's something that feels gratuitous about deliberately killing them for this kind of personal pleasure.

4. Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world?

No.

5. Assume there were a technological breakthrough that would allow people to travel as easily and cheaply between continents as between nearby cities. Unfortunately, there would also be 100,000 deaths a year from the device. Would you try to prevent its use?

I was going to say yes initially, but Andrew's post convinced me that such a device would be mostly upside in the medium-to-long term.

6. Would you rather die peacefully among friends at age 50, or painfully and alone at age 80? Assume that most of the last 30 years would be good ones.

I don't really object to either of these outcomes, honestly.

7. If this country were to suffer an unprovoked nuclear attack and would be totally obliterated in a matter of minutes, would you favour unleashing the U.S. nuclear arsenal upon the attackers?

Not if it wouldn't increase the US's chance of surviving the first strike, no.

8. While out one day, you are surprised to see your mother holding hands with someone who is clearly her lover. She notices you, runs over, and begs you not to say anything to your father. How would you respond? What would you do if your father later told you that he was going crazy because he kept thinking your mother was having an affair yet knew it was just his imagination?

I wouldn't default to blabbing to my father, but I'd pressure my mother very hard to come clean to him for everybody's sake. If she refused then I'd tell him eventually. Secrecy about this sort of thing when one knows one's partner is suffering is almost worse than the infidelity itself.

9. If you knew a thermonuclear holocaust would occur in precisely 20 years and no one would survive it, how would you change your present life?

I'm currently going about my life more or less normally despite skewing doomer on climate change, so I doubt I'd do all that much different.

10. You are leading 100 people whose lives are in danger and you must choose between two courses of action. One would save only 90 people; the other would have a 50 percent chance of saving everyone but were it to fail everyone would die. Which would you choose?

The responsible thing is to save the 90, but the decision would haunt me for the rest of my life.

11. If you could prevent either an earthquake in Peru that would kill 40,000 people, a crash at your local airport that would kill 200 people, or an automobile accident that would kill an acquaintance of yours, which would you choose?

Either the first or the third. There isn't really any reason to prefer the second from an altruistic or a self-interested perspective.

12. One night you happen to be on a walk with a person who fits your "ideal" of a perfect romantic partner. Assuming you happened to have a gun on you at the time would you be willing to be suddenly approached by a mugger knowing you would shoot the mugger dead and cause your ideal mate to fall in love with you as a saviour? Assuming you are guaranteed to kill him and that the mugger is a common thug who would have been killed by the police the next day anyways.

What Battista said. No one who would look favorably on me for wasting a mugger Death Wish-style could possibly be my ideal partner.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

Agree that the idea of my soulmate getting the hots for me after wasting a random mugger with my Smith and Wesson is funny.

[Dr. MB]

1. You discover your wonderful one year old child is, because of a mixup at the hospital, not yours. Would you want to exchange the child to try to correct the mistake?

No of course not. By then the kid is basically yours anyway. If the other parents approached me I’d try and figure out a way to work things out but hopefully they would feel the same way.

2. You are given the power to kill people simply by thinking of their deaths and twice repeating the word "good-bye". People would die a natural death and no one would suspect you. Are there any situations in which you would use this power?

Possibly. Not for anyone I know but there are some very bad people in the world with a lot of power and we might be better off with them gone.

3. For an all expense paid, one week vacation anywhere in the world, would you be willing to kill a beautiful butterfly by pulling off its wings? What about stepping on a cockroach?

Yeah. I wouldn’t feel happy about it and I usually try to avoid killing spiders in the house but it would be a tough temptation to turn down.

4. Would you be willing to murder an innocent person if it would end hunger in the world?

No. Hunger is always going to exist and I’m not gonna mess with things in that way.

5. Assume there were a technological breakthrough that would allow people to travel as easily and cheaply between continents as between nearby cities. Unfortunately, there would also be 100,000 deaths a year from the device. Would you try to prevent its use?

Of course. I’m skeptical of teleporation anyway since there’s a chance (if it existed) it would kill you and clone a copy of your body whenever you try and teleport. Not sure if this is what the transportation method would be, but we can afford to spend a few hours and a little extra money to prevent that kind of disaster.

6. Would you rather die peacefully among friends at age 50, or painfully and alone at age 80? Assume that most of the last 30 years would be good ones.

Have to go with 80. It seems like only the moment of death would be truly miserable, but by then I’ll be dead anyway.

7. If this country were to suffer an unprovoked nuclear attack and would be totally obliterated in a matter of minutes, would you favour unleashing the U.S. nuclear arsenal upon the attackers?

I guess we wouldn’t have much to lose then, but it would depend on the scale of the disaster. I’d rather prevent a nuclear winter that wipes out the rest of the human race as well.

8. While out one day, you are surprised to see your mother holding hands with someone who is clearly her lover. She notices you, runs over, and begs you not to say anything to your father. How would you respond? What would you do if your father later told you that he was going crazy because he kept thinking your mother was having an affair yet knew it was just his imagination?

I’d tell him. It might be painful but it’s the right thing to do in that situation.

9. If you knew a thermonuclear holocaust would occur in precisely 20 years and no one would survive it, how would you change your present life?

Well by then I’d be almost 40, I guess I wouldn’t have any kids. I’d probably try and make the most of it and do a lot more research into death and the afterlife.

10. You are leading 100 people whose lives are in danger and you must choose between two courses of action. One would save only 90 people; the other would have a 50 percent chance of saving everyone but were it to fail everyone would die. Which would you choose?

Second one seems like the moral option but I really don’t know what I’d do until a situation like that came up.

11. If you could prevent either an earthquake in Peru that would kill 40,000 people, a crash at your local airport that would kill 200 people, or an automobile accident that would kill an acquaintance of yours, which would you choose?

None of them. I think not making a choice would leave me with less guilt than making one.

12. One night you happen to be on a walk with a person who fits your "ideal" of a perfect romantic partner. Assuming you happened to have a gun on you at the time would you be willing to be suddenly approached by a mugger knowing you would shoot the mugger dead and cause your ideal mate to fall in love with you as a saviour? Assuming you are guaranteed to kill him and that the mugger is a common thug who would have been killed by the police the next day anyways.

I’d rather try to win this person over by actual means and not by fake heroism. No.