The Cellar - View Single Post - Collective Responsibility -v- Individual Responsibility.

Undertoad · 05-18-2008, 06:47 AM

Radar, leave government out of it. In place of the word government put society.

Does the individual have any responsibility to society? Here are some moral questions to ponder to make the point.

If your neighbor is planning to shoot up a major university, and you overhear him planning it, do you have a responsibility to let somebody know?

You have 100 gallons of sewage left over from your last big shindig. You can't move it, but you find you can easily dump it down a hill where people walk to work every day. At the least it'll make people retch; at most it'll make somebody sick. Nobody will know you did it. Do you have a responsibility not to?

You live on the 35th floor of a condo complex because they ensure your private property rights. The guy on the 36th floor accidentally falls off his balcony, and saves himself by snagging your flagpole. The only thing saving him from certain death is your flagpole and he is now hanging off it. As you know, private property is one of the centerpieces of your approach. So is it perfectly moral to take a hammer to his fingers because he is trespassing on your pole?

05-18-2008, 06:47 AM	#19
Undertoad Radical Centrist Join Date: Jan 2001 Location: Cottage of Prussia Posts: 31,423	Radar, leave government out of it. In place of the word government put society. Does the individual have any responsibility to society? Here are some moral questions to ponder to make the point. If your neighbor is planning to shoot up a major university, and you overhear him planning it, do you have a responsibility to let somebody know? You have 100 gallons of sewage left over from your last big shindig. You can't move it, but you find you can easily dump it down a hill where people walk to work every day. At the least it'll make people retch; at most it'll make somebody sick. Nobody will know you did it. Do you have a responsibility not to? You live on the 35th floor of a condo complex because they ensure your private property rights. The guy on the 36th floor accidentally falls off his balcony, and saves himself by snagging your flagpole. The only thing saving him from certain death is your flagpole and he is now hanging off it. As you know, private property is one of the centerpieces of your approach. So is it perfectly moral to take a hammer to his fingers because he is trespassing on your pole?