Not a simple question.

Simplify the question by making it a bit more real world for most.

If the checkout person at the store, or the waitperson at the restaurant forgets to put an item on the receipt, does one call it to their attention or not?

Does it make a difference if the store is WalMart or SAKs?

Does it make a difference if the restaurant is McDonalds' or high end (you pick)?

Does it make if difference if the item is $1.00 or $100.00?


In my mind the answers to the little questions, like these are not much different from an ethical/moral point of view than the bigger questions like yours.

Proposing a problem like 'does one kill to protect family' actually puts one in a box where there is no reasonable alternate solution. Is it ethically/morally correct to kill in that situation? Probably not. Is killing in that situation necessary? Probably. I think most would say there is no choice.

Change it a little and ask 'does one kill to protect a buddy in a military situation?'. Immediately this extends to 'does one kill to protect a buddy in a military situation in an unjustified conflict?

Situationally, I think the answer, would be to protect one's buddy no matter how justified the conflict.

Now lets move the same problem to a gang fight on the street outside the local high school. Police move in. Gang members and police are hurt and/or killed. Some of each by gang member actions, some of each by police actions. Everyone has the 'to protect my buddy' defense. Situationally, I think most would say the police had the higher duty and were therefore 'more' justified in their actions than the gang members. In my mind, being 'more' justified is no excuse, it is just what society expects in that situation.

I guess my point is that I think ethical/moral judgment cannot be anything but situational within the context of society. In the conservative Muslim world of Iraq, not much more than a year ago, it was acceptable, in that society, to cut off the hands of a thief, or stone a woman to death for adultry. Niether of those offenses are treated that way in this society.

I think the best most of us can do is deal with the simple questions around us every day in the best ethical/moral way that we can. When the big stuff happens, we do what seems necessary at the time.


May the big stuff never come your way.


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