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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Merkuri" data-source="post: 3290817" data-attributes="member: 41321">In an effort to simplify alignment as much as I can, I've been trying to think up a hypothetical situation that would identify the alignment of an individual in most cases.  I've only come up with one for the good-evil scale, but here it is.The situation: You and another person are in the middle of a street when all of a sudden a cart (or some other large unstoppable object) goes out of control and starts barreling towards you.  Whoever the cart hits will die.  There is no one else close enough to take any action.  In the heat of the moment you do not have time to identify the other person with you.  They could be any age, race, gender, alignment, religion, etc.  You do not have time to think and can only act on gut instinct.Edit: Assume that you have the physical ability to do any and all of the actions described below.Part 1: You are not in the way of the cart and would be safe if you did not move.  The other person is standing right in the cart's path.  For the sake of argument, assume there are no other options.  Do you risk your life by trying to push the person out of the way?Part 2: You are in the way of the cart.  The other person is safe where he/she is.  If you jump away from the other person you do not know if that will take you completely out of the way of the cart, and you may still die.  If you jump towards the person you will have to pull them out of the way, putting them in the path of the cart, but guaranteeing that you will live.  For the sake of argument, assume there are no other options.  Do you put the other person in danger to save yourself, or do you leave them alone and risk your own life?Results:A good character will risk their life to push another person out of the way of the cart, and will not pull another person in the way to save their own life.An evil character will not risk their lives for the person in the way, and will put another person in danger to saves themselves.A neutral character is someone who does any other combination of actions.  For example, a neutral person may throw themselves in front of the cart to save another, but they'd also pull that person into the path of the cart to save themselves.So, can you think of any people in history or literature that would fail this test?  Is this too contrived, or a good basic test of morality?  Can you think of a similar test for the law-chaos scale?</blockquote>

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