Quoth Brian Holtz: ----- It's bizarre for you to deny that a discussion about morality is about the decisions one hopes one would make or would advocate that others make. -----
While I'm not sure that I agree entirely with Ayn Rand on the subject, she addressed what she called "the ethics of emergencies" in terms of their distorting influence. Here's a variant on the Trolley Problem that might be illustrative for you of the cognitive dissonance the basic problem represents to Susan: You are standing next to a switch which determines which track the trolley will go down, A or B. Tied to the end of Track A is a single individual. Tied to the end of Track B are ten individuals. If you do nothing, the trolley will go down Track B, almost certainly killing all ten individuals. If you throw the switch, the trolley will go down Track A, almost certainly killing the one individual. Oh, by the way, the individual at the end of Track A is your wife. Regards, Tom Knapp
