Evolutionary Philosophy
  • Home
  • Worldview
    • Epistemology
    • Metaphysics
    • Logic
    • Ethics
    • Politics
    • Aesthetics
  • Applied
    • Know Thyself
    • 10 Tenets
    • Survival of the Fittest Philosophers >
      • Ancient Philosophy (Pre 450 CE)
      • Medieval Philosophy (450-1600 CE)
      • Modern Philosophy (1600-1920 CE)
      • Contemporary Philosophy (Post 1920 CE)
    • 100 Thought Experiments
    • Elsewhere
  • Fiction
    • Draining the Swamp >
      • Further Q&A
    • Short Stories
    • The Vitanauts
  • Blog
  • Store
  • About
    • Purpose
    • My Evolution
    • Evolution 101
    • Philosophy 101

Thought Experiment 99: Give Peace a Chance?

7/10/2017

2 Comments

 
Picture
What benefit would you require to convince yourself that this could continue?
We're very nearly done with all of the philosophical thought experiments I'm planning to cover, so I hope by now that you've grown to trust me to deal with controversial subjects in a respectful manner. This week's experiment could be very disturbing for some people.

--------------------------------------------------
     The emissary had been sent by Hitler under the utmost secrecy. If the British ever tried to reveal the nature of his mission publicly, Berlin would deny all knowledge of the trip and denounce him as a traitor. But that would surely not be necessary. No one could see how Churchill could refuse the deal he had to offer.
     Hitler knew that Churchill wanted to avoid needless casualties. Both leaders realised that a conflict between the two nations would cost countless thousands of lives. But war could be averted. Hitler was offering guarantees that, once the Final Solution was completed, no further offensives would be launched and only insurgents within the lands he occupied would be killed. That would certainly mean there would be fewer lives lost than if Britain attempted to liberate France and overthrow the Nazi regime in Germany.
     The Führer was sure this would appeal to the leader of the country that had invented utilitarianism. After all, who could prefer a course of action that would lead to more deaths over one that would lead to fewer?

Baggini, J., The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, 2005, p. 295.
---------------------------------------------------

What do you think? Is there a cost too high to stop genocide? Can you ever do a deal with the devil? I'll be back on Friday with my thoughts on this.
2 Comments
Disagreeable Me
7/10/2017 04:19:58 pm

Hi Ed,

That's a tough one.

The idea of allowing the Nazis to continue the holocaust unopposed is viscerally distasteful, but as a consequentialist I would have to side with whichever option caused the least harm. It's not clear that allowing the Nazis to win would cause the least harm however.

1) They're probably not to be trusted, especially not in the long term
2) The harms caused by their Reich might well outweigh any benefit from avoiding war
3) Allowing this regime to exist might well normalise its odious ideology and allow such ideas to spread, causing harm elsewhere.

I don't think it's right to expect a utilitarian to simply total the number of lives lost on the two sides of a decision. Quality of life and well-being matters too. I think the world we have now is likely to be a far better place than it would have been had Hitler won the war, or at least won the right to stay in power.

As such, I suspect it would be the wrong thing to do to accept Hitler's offer. But I can't be sure of that, and so I will accept the implied criticism of consequentialism -- that in some scenarios, with the right tweaks to matters of empirical fact, it might turn out that the best thing for a uttilitarian/consequentialist to do would have been to tolerate Hitler, which would seem to make consequentialism potentially abhorrent.

But we're now seeing that it might have been best to tolerate Saddam, as the mess we have in Iraq and Syria now is not much preferable to his regime, as evil as it was. Lybia is a similar case. These problems are not easy, especially without the benefit of hindsight.

Reply
Ed Gibney link
7/11/2017 01:52:33 pm

I concur - these are very difficult situations to navigate. Our positions seem to be congruent here though (as in many other places), so I don't have any issues to pick with your comment. Sorry to be so...agreeable!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe to Help Shape This Evolution

    SUBSCRIBE

    RSS Feed


    Blog Philosophy

    This is where ideas mate to form new and better ones. Please share yours respectfully...or they will suffer the fate of extinction!


    Archives

    January 2023
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    August 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    July 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    April 2012


    Click to set custom HTML
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.