The BBC’s four questions (part 1)

I love the BBC. My morning ritual for the past two years has been to skim the BBC World News website for a few minutes, and I often glance at it during lunch. I find them to be far more objective when dealing with America politics, and they provide a delightful selection of very interesting international news. I am not alone in my exultation of the BBC—I have heard that they have the most cachet and prestige worldwide. America news channels, in my opinion, do not have enough world news, and they are far too sensationalist for my tastes. I’ll save my scruples with US news for another lecture, though—this morning I found something I would like to discuss.

In the online version of the BBC magazine, I found a humorous (or is it “humourous”) article entitled, “Four philosophical questions to make your brain hurt.” For the next few days, I’d like to discuss these.

Number one: Should we kill people for their organs?

This is asking if it is moral to sacrifice the life of one person for several other people. The article describes three hypothetical cases of this: First, it asks if it is moral to kill someone to cannibalize his/her organs, which can save the lives of five people. Next, it asks if it is moral to choose one person out of six to be killed so that the other five can live (if you do not choose, all six will die). Finally, it asks which is better—to allow one person to be run over by a train, or five people to be run over by it?

What the passage is really trying to ask is this: If it is moral to choose the death of one person over five people, why isn’t it moral to kill one person to save five people? My answer to this question is, as usual, “Don’t know.” However, I would like to analyze the rational for either a “yes” or “no” answer.

This question is based on moral philosophy, which is based on metaphysical philosophy. In this example, it may be moral to kill one person to save five others—or it may not, depending on the exact nature of the universe. To use a simple example, if God decided that yes, it is moral, then of course it is moral to do so. But if he decided that it is not moral to kill one person to save five others, then it is not. Also, the three situations described above may be equally moral or immoral, also depending on the nature of the universe. In a universe without and inherent morality the answer would probably depend on the will of the person making this choice, since no moral standards exist to judge them by.

Also, an update on my post on AI: read this article. Amazing!