Which is worse (or better)-- not alerting the woman of her dropped cigarettes and therefore perhaps saving her health? Or telling her, since they were hers and we saw her drop them?
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Moral Dilemma
After a Girl Scout troop meeting the other night, Rashmi and I encountered a Moral Dilemma. A woman was asking people to complete questionaires on moral decision making, after which they would receive $5. The woman was busy with participants, so we weren't asked, but just in front of us on the way out was another woman who dropped a pack of cigarettes without noticing. Rashmi and I looked at each other and decided not to alert the woman because we think smoking is bad. And we are girl scout leaders! But then I thought that we had become part of the moral decision making questionaire! Which is worse (or better)-- not alerting the woman of her dropped cigarettes and therefore perhaps saving her health? Or telling her, since they were hers and we saw her drop them?
Which is worse (or better)-- not alerting the woman of her dropped cigarettes and therefore perhaps saving her health? Or telling her, since they were hers and we saw her drop them?
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3 comments:
a true conundrum. with no correct answer, opting out of handing her the cigarettes was an admirable only if you then proceeded to throw the pack in the garbage. as girl scout leaders you are aware that littering is bad too.
umm, we certainly didn't throw them away! in fact, there might have been a girl scout behind us, so that we were putting her in direct risk!! but, hey, we were on our way to the bar, so what could we do?
Even Ludwig Wittgenstein would have struggled with this one. I think that what you should have done is to have picked up the packet, called the woman over and then crumbled the foul cancer sticks in front of her saying, "You may not understand this now honey, but it's for your own good!"
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