How when you're DEAD?!

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

indisputable arguments.... lol, that's an oxymoron isn't it? well you know what i mean.

As I have never been in such a situation I wouldn't know, but I would actually think that, even if only for a second, I would have acknowledged that I am going to probably die before making my decision. For example, let's say someone is about to get shot and he's too far away for you to knock him out of the way, but you can jump in the bullet's path and use your head to stop or deflect the bullet just enough so that it doesn't hit him. Let's also say that you are under the impression that you will die instantly after the bullet hits you, and this proves true. Let's also say you are an atheist so you don't believe in an afterlife and so you don't believe you will see him when from heaven. Let's also assume you do not know this person. So now you have no selfish reason to sacrifice yourself because you are well aware that you will be dead and you will get nothing out of that person surviving because nothing is going to happen as a reward for your act. It will be the last moment of your life and you won't be able to see what happens from that moment on. For all you know, maybe there was another bullet and the second one was still used to kill him anyways.

my new theme song



erikboyd60@hotmail.com

"True poetry can communicate before it is understood"

-T.S. Eliot

battle record:

7-0-0

Now there may be the same situation you described and the person knew that by taking the bullet they will be remembered for all time. Their decision to die would sort of be irrational but some would argue that this would be a selfish act. But we run into problems because these types of scenarios are not valid thought experiments because they don't obey a strict criteria. The simple fact is that all of these kinds of situations are only hypothetical (much of philosophy is hypothetical but these things are far too hypothetical) and that is something the Oliners point out, that we can never really know these things (or even validly predict) because people are complex and just because we want to presume selflessness doesn't exist (just because it is uncommon), it doesn't negate the possibility of its existence. It is difficult for anyone to say that in all human time there has never been a selfless act. As they say, come on now.