Firstly, I'm not sure where the inconsistency is here. My view, after all, is that though you have obligations, your obligations don't extend to putting your own life in danger. Choosing to let everyone else die so that you can have an extra day of life is perfectly consistent with this view - in a way, in fact, it's just a very extreme expression of it. A reductio of it, for some people.Londoner wrote:So, if say you are not morally speaking free to choose, why not? Where do you derive the moral code that dictates that you are obliged to help others (sometimes)? The reason I ask is that I find it hard to imagine an internally consistent moral code that would support both an obligation to help others and an attitude like:
(Nested quote removed.)
More importantly, you seem to be conflating claims I've made about my general psychology with claims I've made about my moral views. Trading my the lives of every single person on the planet for just one day of life for myself would, in my view, be morally wrong. I'd do it because I'm not morally perfect. Far from it. I don't care much about morality: when I'm considering how to act, I give morality very little - if any - weight.
From where do I derive my moral code? From my head. I'm pretty much an emotivist on morality.
-- Updated May 8th, 2013, 9:25 pm to add the following --
I did not change the original question. Here it is again:Xris wrote:Zoot you changed the original question and said you would not put your life in peril. I have said I would put my life in peril but not to the point where it would be pointless. You have made a determined statement, you would not put your life at any risk.The fireman or any who serve the public would act the same.If there was a good chance I could save that child's life but risk mine, I would attempt to save that child. What would you do and why should a fireman die to possible save you? Firemen are trained to make an assessment of the situation and judge the consequences.
"for the sake of simplicity let's say I know that either I have to let her die or kill myself to save her, of course I would choose to save her. Who wouldn't?"
That's what I was responding to in my first post on this thread.
Firefighters are employed to risk their lives - not simply "make an assessment of the situation and judge the consequences". Anybody can do that. One of the primary reasons we employ firefighters is so we have people to actually enter certain kinds of dangerous situation.