I have a background in philosophy. That is to say I dabble in what I would consider deep thinking. What seems like a long time ago I was on the search for some answers or at least some tools by which I could find some answers. My understanding of the truth or answers to perplexing questions is a lot more sophisticated now then it was back then. I suppose I did make some advances after all. At the beginning of my search I started with those who asked similar questions in the past. Plato, Aristotle, Wittgenstein, Kripke, and many others seemed to shin a lot of light on things. I tried to keep an open mind on all the people I read. Despite my attempts to be unbiased every time I would read or contemplate the ideas of John Stuart Mill I just seemed not to like the guy or what he was saying. Even though some of the things he said I happen to agree with I just didn’t want to. Go figure I guess I will always have an irrational side of me, contrary to what I thought I could do when I was younger.
So this Mill cat comes along and tries to save the philosophy of Utilitarianism. It is riddled with problems so he takes it up a notch, but you all know this. By you I mean me, and by me I mean I. So we get into this big tiff about rule utilitarianism vs. act utilitarianism. But that is another topic all together. So I was getting a bit nostalgic for my younger, dumber days and started to think about all the hypothetical examples that could perplex those fancy utilitarian cats. There are a whole bunch, in fact I do remember there being a large paper dedicated to the implications that walking on grass (cutting corners) has on utilitarianism. So one hypothetical situation arose in my mind during this trip down nostalgia lane and it involves a disaster. Suppose that a person comes across a disaster. There in front of them is a person who is not conscious or breathing and there are numerous other people scattered about that need medical help. Suppose this person is trained medically. Suppose that this person could make an attempt to revive the person that is basically dead. The attempt will be successful, but the odds of the person living afterwards are next to none. On top of this if the person would be resuscitated his or her last moments are sure to be miserable. So you have a slim chance, but a guaranteed miserable last moments if he or she doesn’t make it. So Mill you got an answer for that one?
