Is it fair and right the distribution of wealth we observe in this post-industrial era?

by: Luiz F. Lewis - November 14th, 2011   Filed under: Economics Matters and Problems, General Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Reflective Philosophy Add Comment

Is it fair and right for some people, the very few, the minority in population, have most of the world wealth and, on the other unbalanced side of the scale, most of the people have the smallest resources?

Who is the Owner of this Earth?

On a different, but connected, train of thought, the way we live our lives today are fair and right to the environment and as it comes back to everyone, everywhere, will it be fair and right to our children and grandchildren who will “inherit the Earth”?

All these variables are interconnected. Money, wealth, environment, health.

Sometimes having larger financial resources may lead the rich individual to use up more energy resources. The more enegy resources we use up, the more costly are our actions upon the environment.

For the time being, one fair and right solution – as we still need more time to develop higher technologies – is to side by the eco-developmentalist approach and “more natural” way of living.

The eco-developmentalism calls our attention to living a more moderate life in terms of energy consumption.

On Earth, we are all connected and we all have this responsability so that:

Our children and grandchildren, and their children and grandchildren, and as long as Providence will allow it to go on, may indeed inherit the Earth!

 

 

 

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Will John The-good-man, a kantian, accomplish the task the powerful being demands from him?

by: Luiz F. Lewis - November 12th, 2011   Filed under: General Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Reflective Philosophy Add Comment

Someone with enough power, perhaps an imaginable sci-fi extraterrestrial being, threatens John The-good-man with the following seemingly impossible to-obey order: “John The-good-man,”, says the being, “if you do not kill John The-bad-man, thy brother, by midnight, I will terminate every human being, on the whole Earth, who is 18 years old or above.”

This is not that far away from certain Hollywood movies, however the case, the important detail to observe is that:

 John The-good-man is a kantian.

As a complement, John The-good-man has to himself the certainty that killing another man is wrong, even if that other man is not “that good”, so to say. He conceives one certain exception for killing, i.e. defending himself, but that was not by any means the case.

The unavoidable question:

Will John The-good-man accomplish the task the powerful being demands from him?

On the previous post, the doctor had an impossible decision, knowing that his immediate and urgent dedication to save one patient’s life would let the other patient die. On this post, John The-good-man is kantian, so he must abide by his moral beliefs and principles – the one possible initiative to save billions of humans would be to annihilate the powerful being’s powers, for a kantian will almost certainly be against such an order indicated in the riddle above.

 

 

 

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One doctor, limited resources, two severe patients, time expiring, and one impossible decision to take

by: Luiz F. Lewis - November 10th, 2011   Filed under: General Ethics and Moral Philosophy, Humans on Earth, Reflective Philosophy Add Comment

A medical doctor receives two urgent severe patients arriving at the same time from two different ambulances into a Hospital’s Emergency Room.

  1. One of the patients is very bad, having very little chance of surviving, but as it yet exists, his chances are still standing.
  2. The other one is in a better condition and has a bigger chance of surviving, but time is against him or her if medical care is not taken immediately.

 One doctor, limited resources, two severe patients, time expiring, one “impossible” decision to take.

The unavoidable question:

Having limited resources, i.e. having enough resources to save one of them, and one only, to which of the two patients will the doctor proceed to life-save?

 

 

 

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