Utilitarianism: Crash Course Philosophy #36
Our next stop in our tour of the ethical lay of the land is utilitarianism. With a little help from Batman, Hank explains the principle of utility, and the difference between act and rule utilitari...
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Should Batman kill the Joker?If you were to ask the Dark Knight himself, with his hard-and-fast no-killing rule, he’d say absolutely not.Actually, in fact, he would say: [Batman voice] “Absolutely not.”When you think about it, dude is pretty Kantian in his ethics.Regardless of what Joker does, there are some lines that good people do not cross, and for Batman, killing definitely falls on the wrong side of that line.But, let’s be real here: Joker is never gonna stop killing.Sure, Batman will have him thrown back in Arkham, but we all know that he’s gonna get out – he always gets out – and once he’s free, he will kill again.And maim and terrorize.And when he does won’t a little bit of that be Batman’s fault?Batman has been in a position to kill...
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Should Batman kill the Joker?If you were to ask the Dark Knight himself, with his hard-and-fast no-killing rule, he’d say absolutely not.Actually, in fact, he would say: [Batman voice] “Absolutely not.”When you think about it, dude is pretty Kantian in his ethics.Regardless of what Joker does, there are some lines that good people do not cross, and for Batman, killing definitely falls on the wrong side of that line.But, let’s be real here: Joker is never gonna stop killing.Sure, Batman will have him thrown back in Arkham, but we all know that he’s gonna get out – he always gets out – and once he’s free, he will kill again.And maim and terrorize.And when he does won’t a little bit of that be Batman’s fault?Batman has been in a position to kill...
