首页
登录
职称英语
In the grand scheme of things Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are normal
In the grand scheme of things Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are normal
游客
2024-12-24
13
管理
问题
In the grand scheme of things Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are normally thought of as good guys. Between them, they came up with the ethical theory known as utilitarianism. The goal of this theory is encapsulated in Bentham’s aphorism that "the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."
It all sounds fine and dandy until you start applying it to particular cases. A utilitarian, for example, might approve of the occasional torture of suspected terrorists—for the greater happiness of everyone else, you understand. That type of observation has led Daniel Bartels at Columbia University and David Pizarro at Cornell to ask what sort of people actually do have a utilitarian outlook on life. Their answers, just published in Cognition, are not comfortable.
One of the classic techniques used to measure a person’s willingness to behave in a utilitarian way is known as trolleyology.
The subject of the study is challenged with thought experiments involving a runaway railway trolley or train carriage. All involve choices, each of which leads to people’s deaths. For example: there are five railway workmen in the path of a runaway carriage. The men will surely be killed unless the subject of the experiment, a bystander in the story, does something. The subject is told he is on a bridge over the tracks. Next to him is a big, heavy stranger. The subject is informed that his own body would be too light to stop the train, but that if he pushes the stranger onto the tracks, the stranger’s large body will stop the train and save the five lives. That, unfortunately, would kill the stranger.
Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro knew from previous research that around 90% of people refuse the utilitarian act of killing one individual to save five. What no one had previously inquired about, though, was the nature of the remaining 10%.
To find out, the two researchers gave 208 undergraduates a battery of trolleyological tests and measured, on a four-point scale, how utilitarian their responses were. Participants were also asked to respond to a series of statements intended to get a sense of their individual psychologies. These statements included, "I like to see fist fights", "The best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear", and "When you really think about it, life is not worth the effort of getting up in the morning". Each was asked to indicate, for each statement, where his views lay on a continuum that had "strongly agree" at one end and "strongly disagree" at the other. These statements, and others like them, were designed to measure, respectively, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and a person’s sense of how meaningful life is.
Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro then correlated the results from the trolleyology with those from the personality tests. They found a strong link between utilitarian answers to moral dilemmas (push the fat guy off the bridge) and personalities that were psychopathic. Machiavellian or tended to view life as meaningless. Utilitarians, this suggests, may add to the sum of human happiness, but they are not very happy people themselves.
That does not make utilitarianism wrong. Crafting legislation—one of the main things that Bentham and Mill wanted to improve— inevitably involves riding roughshod over someone’s interests. Utilitarianism provides a plausible framework for deciding who should get trampled. The results obtained by Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro do, though, raise questions about the type of people who you want making the laws. Psychopathic, Machiavellian misanthropes? Apparently, yes. [br] The phrase "riding roughshod over" in the last paragraph probably means
选项
A、reflecting upon.
B、resting upon.
C、trampling upon.
D、looking upon.
答案
C
解析
语义题。根据题干定位至末段第二句“Crafting legislation一one of the main things that Bentham and Mill wanted to improve--inevitably involves riding roughshod over someone’s interests.”,紧接着下一句对该句做出进一步解释“Utilitarianism provides a plausible framework for deciding who should get trampled.”,结合首段末句对功利主义的解释“the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation”可以判断,trample upon“践踏”符合本处语境,故[C]为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://tihaiku.com/zcyy/3882528.html
相关试题推荐
Manisoneofanumberofanimalsthatmakethings,butmanistheonlyone
Manisoneofanumberofanimalsthatmakethings,butmanistheonlyone
Manisoneofanumberofanimalsthatmakethings,butmanistheonlyone
Therelationshipbetweenwordsandthingsintheworldisestablishedbymeanso
ThingstobeTaughtinEverySchoolⅠ.Introduction:Importanceofstude
ThingstobeTaughtinEverySchoolⅠ.Introduction:Importanceofstude
ThingstobeTaughtinEverySchoolⅠ.Introduction:Importanceofstude
ThingstobeTaughtinEverySchoolⅠ.Introduction:Importanceofstude
ThingstobeTaughtinEverySchoolⅠ.Introduction:Importanceofstude
WhatwerethethingsinBritainthatDr.Mathewfoundmoststrangewhenhefirst
随机试题
Americanstodaychooseamongmoreoptionsinmorepartsoflifethanhaseve
Mosttaxpayershavehadenoughincometaxcollectedbytheiremployersdurin
专门性工程地质测绘包括()。A.区域构造地质测绘、区域地貌地质测绘、区域水文
Thechangeinthatvillagewasmiraculou
挪威研究人员分析了该国过去几十年里230万份出生记录,以及相应孕妇的健康数据,结
港口的( )是港口进行生产活动的物质基础。 A.货物 B.运输设备和
下列符合股价性质的描述有()。 A.在看涨市场中,股价直线上升 B.在看跌
根据《商业银行资本管理办法(试行)》,在银行持续经营条件下无条件用来吸收损失,具
流浸膏剂指药材用适宜的溶剂浸出有效成分,蒸去部分溶剂,调整浓度至规定标准而制成的
具有易折性要求的灯具包括()。A.跑道上的滑行道中线灯 B.等待位置灯 C.
最新回复
(
0
)