I think there are few humans who don’t genuinely care more about themselves their friends and family than people in general.
Personally I find the idea that I should prefer the death of say, my own little sister, to two or three or four random little girls absurd. I suspect even when it comes to one’s own life people are hopelessly muddled on what they really want and their answers don’t correlate too well with actions. A better way to get an estimate of what a person is likley to do, is to ask them what fraction of people would sacrifice their lives to save the lives of N (small positive integer) other random people.
It’s even more complicated than that. If I see a few strangers in immediate, unambiguous danger, I’m pretty sure I will die to save them. But I will not spend all that much on donating to a charity that will save these same people, twenty years later and two thousand miles away. (...what was that about altruistic ideals being Far?)
I think there are few humans who don’t genuinely care more about themselves their friends and family than people in general.
Personally I find the idea that I should prefer the death of say, my own little sister, to two or three or four random little girls absurd. I suspect even when it comes to one’s own life people are hopelessly muddled on what they really want and their answers don’t correlate too well with actions. A better way to get an estimate of what a person is likley to do, is to ask them what fraction of people would sacrifice their lives to save the lives of N (small positive integer) other random people.
It’s even more complicated than that. If I see a few strangers in immediate, unambiguous danger, I’m pretty sure I will die to save them. But I will not spend all that much on donating to a charity that will save these same people, twenty years later and two thousand miles away. (...what was that about altruistic ideals being Far?)
Excellent point.