Friday, September 21, 2012
Decisions, Decisions
We spent a lot of time in class today talking about the trolley problem and then later the classrooms with the buttons example. It was particularly interesting to me because this was not the first philosophy class I have had where this problem is proposed. In every class that it has been brought up in, we always spend a great deal of time on it and continuously come back to it. However, the most interesting thing I have noticed in my classes is that when the problem is first brought up, people hesitate to give a firm answer before asking questions about the circumstances proposed and/or altering the scenario to make it either one that seems easier to make a decision from or further complicate it. This makes sense because at the end of the day, as much as we contemplate what we would do or what we should do we don’t actually know. It seems easier for us to take a stand when we know more about a situation and can in a way feel like we are justifying our decision based on the facts we obtain. Whether the problem is brought up in an ethics class or social and political philosophy class, it is difficult to predict what our actions would be. We can theorize what Mill’s utilitarian approach would dictate or what Kant’s deontological philosophy would necessitate but we can’t go much farther then that. So do examples like the trolley problem show that in the real world we can’t adopt one philosophy over another? Is it more realistic to acknowledge that we take different parts from various philosophies and meld them together to create something that we can try to follow and makes us feel good? One of the reasons I enjoy discussing these examples is because it exposes the gap between what we can say is the logical thing to do and what we would actually do. What happens when logic seems to fail us and we don't think we could do what logic entails? The majority would probably agree that when we are in real life situations where a decision has to be made, logic is not the only factor we consider. Is it realistic or productive to focus on the logical reasons only? Should we be trying to work towards making logical solutions that aren’t influenced by other factors? Is that even possible?
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I completely agree with you when you say that it is near impossible for us to predict what anyone would do if they were put into the trolley situation. For example, if we were looking at the trolley going towards the 10 people while a fat man was beside us, most of us wouldn't even think about pushing the fat man. This wouldn't be because we decided to not push the fat man but because it wouldn't even come to most of our minds. I think that most people would react by calling the police; we put so much trust in the police and authorities higher than us (e.g. god(s)) that most of us wouldn't even try to do anything.
ReplyDeleteI also like your point about predicting people's actions. Normally we are rational human beings who make irrational mistakes, but that does not make us irrational people. But when we are in a situation like the trolley problem, we would be really excited and our adrenaline would be pumping. This would probably force us to make irrational mistakes. When we have a discussion in a class, we can use logic to decide what path we would take but if we were put into the situation, would we take the most logical path? I think not. Even though we are rational creatures, we still make irrational decisions. These decisions only seem irrational in hindsight. I think that this shows that a person’s philosophy in the classroom might be different than their philosophy in the field.
Finally, I really don’t think that we can make decisions that are simply based in logic. Like you said, we take into account many other factors. These factors vary from situation to situation and from person to person. If we did live in a world where we only took into account logic, then we would live in a world where we would have to be on constant lookout. Someone might push us onto the tracts because they thought that it was the logical thing to do; though it might have been in their eyes, it wasn’t in ours. In our eyes, we were denied our freedom. Our freedom was taken to promote someone else’s freedom. So, no, we should not be going towards a world where people only make decisions that are only based on logic. It would be an irrational thing to do. We do need to take into account all the factors.
The problem with analysis of situations without only using logic is that without logic we can’t begin to analyze actions. Although we as humans may have faulty logic, or may allow emotions to influence our choices, we are not acting without logic; we are just using flawed logic. We can look back at our decision making and determine illogical decisions, but we are still rational creatures who use logic to determine our conclusions. When we put weight into things like emotions or sentiments, we are cheapening reality. This thinking can seriously hurt people, or yourself. We must approach decisions using logic, and train ourselves to follow logical progression in decision making so that when we are forced to determine difficult problems, we can face them and take the best course of action regardless of human interference.
ReplyDeleteI think that in real life there is so much more that goes into decision making then just a philosophy you tell people you go by. I know personally, that as I grow my ideals and morals have changed radically, whether it is from past experiences or what I am trying to emulate for the time being. I wish it was as easy for me to just right down my own philosophy and be able to follow it like some of the great minds have done, sadly I am very far from that. I totally agree that we are eclectic when we do decision making. It is nice to be able to look at other great thinkers perspectives of what is right and wrong and choose what we like out of them. I know personally that I have changed a lot of my views because I have been enlightened by what other people that I respect intellectually have thought.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of working towards not being influenced by other people I am not sure that I would like that. It helps me out quite a bit to grow from the past experiences of other people so I dont make the same mistakes. Also I think that when we use other people's ideas then we get to look at a different perspective that we may have not been able to get a possibility to use before that.