Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pawsplay" data-source="post: 5510474" data-attributes="member: 15538">Ethical systems that require creatures to not survive lead to all sorts of logical self-nullifications. For instance, if you have a duty to help others, how can letting yourself starve possibly be considered conducive to doing your duty? Once you are dead, you are incapable of further action.Does drinking a human's blood justify the death penalty, each and every time?Let's say you counter: okay, what if they have the option not to be a vampire? I counter with, didn't that soccer team, or that prospecting party, or the crew of that sailship, have the opportunity to just stay home? If ethically, you are deontological... telling the vampire they must die is self-negating; it is not something that can be willed, since you would not will that all creatures cease existing if any of them caused harm to others.If you are utilitarian... telling the vampire they must die overlooks the possibility that their existence may lead to greater good.If you are a virtues-based ethicist... telling the vampire they must be murderous toward themselvesIf you are a pragmatic ethicisit... telling the vampire they must die is the same as saying a vampire must not be a vampire, which is a contradiction. Now, you can construct scenarios where according to divine command, the vampire must die, in which case you would have to demonstrate that there is a heavenly reward for the vampire's obedience. Depending on the precise belief system, it may be that the vampire may not commit suicide, yet others are required to destroy it; that would be a "greater purpose" argument and is probably not persuasive unless you can be absolutely sure, in a theological sense, that vampires exist to be staked and only to be staked. This requires a stronger argument than that vampires are Evil, as Evil itself may serve a greater purpose.Or you can say vampires have no free will, which invalidates the example that started this thread.</blockquote>

Verification