Utilitarian Searching

Today in Search, we started Exodus. Through the perils of discussion, someone asked why God was punishing the whole of Egypt if only a few were keeping the Hebrews in slavery. Professor Bakewell asked us if we thought it was better to punish a few for the sake of the whole.

Obviously, my hand was the first one up.

As I rambled out the Categorical Imperative, I knew the rest of my classmates were staring. They tried to argue that in every day circumstances (but not in the Egyptian example) that sacrificing a few is better for the group. More can live. More can prosper.

“An immoral action is not made moral if done for a ‘good’ reason.”

As I was the only Kantian present, Professor Bakewell gave this example: Is it right for a Marine platoon Officer to encourage the weakest link to drop out of the Military? They agreed.

Should a football coach cut the weaker players on the team? More reluctantly, they agreed.

Should a teacher fail part of his class to encourage academic performance? They gave a few muffled agreements.

All the while, I sit in the front row, baffled. If they were true Utilitarians, they would know that the circumstances and consequences of such actions differ so greatly that they should not be used in conjunction to make the same point. As the only one in the class taking philosophy, it was my duty to enlighten them.

The weakest Marine trainee would be acting unjustly by endangering the lives of his platoon and the lives of those for whom he is fighting if he were to make a mistake while the weaker football player would merely, at his worst, cause his team to lose the game or incidentally hurt himself or another player. The teacher is being even more unjust than the Marine-in-training by sabotaging his students. Professors and teachers are supposed to encourage their students to learn. By failing half the class, he is breaking that understood maxim upon which (good) teachers should act.

The leaders of these three groups were all being placed under the assumption that they would be the ones making the unjust decision, which I thought was a great injustice on the class’s behalf. If one looks at the whole of a population, they should look truly at the whole of the population. What has greater consequences: a group of militants and civilians dying or a lost football game?

They were convinced that maybe Utilitarian Calculus might be a little extreme in some circumstances, but they still felt God had done the right thing. I’ll never agree that sacrificing anyone for the betterment of everyone could be right or just.