Ben, I think you might not have understood what I was saying about the poll. My point was that each individual is simply saying that he does not have a problem with suffering a dust speck to save someone from torture. But the issue isn’t whether one individual should suffer a dust speck to save someone, but whether the whole group should suffer dust specks for this purpose. And it isn’t true that the whole group thinks that the whole group should suffer dust specks for this purpose. If it were, there wouldn’t be any disagreement about this question, since I and others arguing this position would presumably be among the group. In other words, your argument from hypothetical authority fails because human opinions are not in fact that consistent.
Suppose that 1 person per google (out of the 3^^^3 persons) is threatened with 50 years of torture? Should each member of the group accept a dust speck for each person threatened with torture, therefore burying the whole group in dust?
Ben, I think you might not have understood what I was saying about the poll. My point was that each individual is simply saying that he does not have a problem with suffering a dust speck to save someone from torture. But the issue isn’t whether one individual should suffer a dust speck to save someone, but whether the whole group should suffer dust specks for this purpose. And it isn’t true that the whole group thinks that the whole group should suffer dust specks for this purpose. If it were, there wouldn’t be any disagreement about this question, since I and others arguing this position would presumably be among the group. In other words, your argument from hypothetical authority fails because human opinions are not in fact that consistent.
Suppose that 1 person per google (out of the 3^^^3 persons) is threatened with 50 years of torture? Should each member of the group accept a dust speck for each person threatened with torture, therefore burying the whole group in dust?