Answer some questions 2

Thought experiments in ethics can be used in a way that is analogous to how experiments in science are used. Many philosophers think that our ethical theories ought to be largely consistent with our considered judgments about morality. A considered judgment is a judgment about the moral rightness or wrongness of an action where the relevant information to make the judgment is available and the person making the judgment is in a position to do so dispassionately and without bias. We can test our moral theories by presenting specific moral cases to see if they entail or imply the same conclusion about the case as we get from our considered judgment about that case.

• Employ thought experiments to test the strength and weaknesses of Utilitarianism and Kant's deontology.
• Debate moral theory with your peers.

Assignment Instructions

Consider the 2 scenario's below. Write at least one paragraph (must be at least 200 hundred words each) on each scenario. Be sure your paragraph answers these three questions. 1. What would be the right thing to do according to Kant's deontological moral theory. 2. What would be the right thing to do according to Mill's Utilitarian theory. 3. What do you think is the right thing to do and why? (Initial post due Thursday). Follow up by commenting on at least two of your classmates posts (due by Sunday).

Scenario 1

Imagine you own several houses in 1944 in the Netherlands. Anne Frank and her family are living in one of these and hiding from the Nazis. Suppose some Nazi SS officers ask you if anyone lives at the house where Anne Frank and her family living. You can lie and save them or tell the truth and doom them to death in a concentration camp.

What would Kant say you should do and why? What would Mill say you should do and why? What WOULD you do and why?

Scenario 2

A brilliant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy you traveler, just passing through, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Should the doctor will the traveler to harvest his organs and saver the five people. 

What would Kant say you should do and why? What would Mill say you should do and why? What WOULD you do and why?