Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!laura
From: laura@utzoo.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.flame,net.religion,net.philosophy
Subject: Re: Another small question.
Message-ID: <5466@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 12-Apr-85 12:59:09 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.5466
Posted: Fri Apr 12 12:59:09 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 12-Apr-85 12:59:09 EST
References: <1521@decwrl.UUCP> <5426@utzoo.UUCP>, <736@mhuxt.UUCP> <5449@utzoo.UUCP>, <259@h-sc1.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 24

	If the other person on the raft is more likely to survive than
	you, are you willing to sacrifice yourself, Laura?  Or is this
	just "Oh, I thought of eating you first."?

	Marie desJardins marie@harvard

I'm an ethical egoist. Sacrifice is a dirty word to ethical egoists.
However, you may not use the word to mean what I mean. Stuck on a
life raft I have to decide whether it is necessary for me to eat
Jeff to survive. He has to make the same decision. Assuming that
neither of us are responsible for the fact that we are in such
dire straights (ie if I blew up the ocean liner we had been on),
and assuming that I am not going to die anyway (killing Jeff is no
good if I am dying of gangrene, rather than, say starving to death),
and assuming that Jeff is not one of those extremely rare people whose
life I value as I value my own life - then I am morally obliged to
kill Jeff. He is likely to be morally obliged to kill me.

Whether I could actually do it is another story. I suspect that I
would believe that it was not necessary for me to kill Jeff until 
it was too late -- I would be too weak to do the deed. 

Laura Creighton
utzoo!laura