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:You are the captain of a lifeboat that can only hold 15 people, but there are currently 20 in it.  The boat will sink unless several people leave.  How do you decide whom to throw off?

:You are the captain of a lifeboat that can only hold 15 people, but there are currently 20 in it.  The boat will sink unless several people leave.  How do you decide whom to throw off?

This lifeboat problem is often taught in [[public school]] in order to persuade students to accept [[utilitarianism]], or [[situational ethics]].  Increasingly the hypothetical scenario includes specific traits of lifeboat passengers, such as a physical handicap, and old age, or other perceived "defect" to be considered in your decision.  Often the student is simply told that he must expel a certain number of passengers and he is to pick which passengers, with which characteristics, to throw off.

This lifeboat problem is often taught in [[public school]] in order to persuade students to accept [[utilitarianism]], or situational ethics.  Increasingly the hypothetical scenario includes specific traits of lifeboat passengers, such as a physical handicap, and old age, or other perceived "defect" to be considered in your decision.  Often the student is simply told that he must expel a certain number of passengers and he is to pick which passengers, with which characteristics, to throw off.

 

The solution is to ask for volunteers and, if not enough people volunteer, then announce that the lifeboat will sink with its selfish passengers.  At that point a mutiny may be attempted, whereupon the wrongdoers should be forced to "walk the plank" (i.e., tossed overboard) and the innocent are thereby saved with the boat.

== Fallacies of the Lifeboat Problem ==

== Fallacies of the Lifeboat Problem ==