Question

For this discussion, I want you to reflect upon a scene in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. The scenario's plot in the clip can be described as follows:

Two large ferries are leaving Gotham: one full of criminals, the other occupied by innocent citizens. Imagine that you are on the boat full of innocent citizens. The two boats suddenly lose all power, and it becomes clear that both are wired with deadly explosives. Detonators are discovered on each ferry, and they will set off the explosives on the other ship. The Joker's voice comes over the loudspeaker of the ferries, and he announces that he is performing a “social experiment”. One ferry’s passengers must press its detonator’s button and destroy the other boat by midnight, or else the Joker will explode both boats.

What should you do as a passenger on the boat full of innocent citizens? If one were to push the button and blow up the prisoners, what might that say about their character? Is pushing the button the morally right thing to do in this case?

(USLOs 1.1, 1.3)

Answer 1

What should you do as a passenger on the boat full of innocent citizens?

Me as a passenger should think initially that no man can take life or decide the fate of another man. To decide a fate of another man and essentially leading him to death is like playing god and being ruthless. This is in no ways acceptable to ethics and morality and can affect adversely our mindset and mental well-being. Criminals are not exactly model citizens and have committed crimes but that does not mean we have the right to pass any judgement on other people's life. And if Joker is forcing us to do this heinous deed, he essentially ia forcing us to leaving the human element of morality and act like a ruthless animal, which a human cannot do due to presence of a compassionate morality and conscience. So I as a passenger on that boat due to above mentioned reasons would not sentence the other boat full of criminals or any other people for that matter.

If one were to push the button and blow up the prisoners, what might that say about their character?

If one decides to blow up the other boat and push the button that displays your character of ruthlessness, inhumane, selfish, opportunistic and untrustworthy. This character when in critical decision making can never to trusted with the interest of the humanity of other people's life and well-being.

Is pushing the button the morally right thing to do in this case?

Pushing button in terms of morality is totally wrong and cannot be justifies whatsoever. Life is important to everyone and this includes the criminals too, that is the reason instead of executing them or hanging the criminals the law sentences them to imprisonment to let them contemplate on their criminal actions committed and think on it. This leads to analyzing the crime committed and realizing it was wrong to commit a crime may that be a robbery or a murder. Therefore, pushing the button is not the morally correct thing to do in this case or in any other case for that matter.