The Strange Case of the Speluncean Explorers
Katie Rush
July 6th, 2010
Intro to Philosophy The Strange Case of the Speluncean Explorers This prompt poses many moral questions. My immediate, intuitive response was that the four defendants were guilty of the crime of Roger Whetmore’s murderer. If you look at the question as simply and literally, “Did they willfully take the life of another?,” the only possible answer is yes. However, the circumstances surrounding this problem were extreme, and that forces one to consider other factors in the problem. As a Judge on the Highest Court of the land, I would be required to give the defendants a completely fair trial. “Innocent until proven guilty” does not apply in a traditional sense here, for they do not need to be proven guilty; all four involved in the crime have clearly and repeatedly admitted that they killed Roger Whetmore in order to eat his flesh, hoping to survive until they were able to escape or be rescued from the confines of the cave. The real question at the heart of this issue is, “How does one define guilty?” Whetmore was the one who had initially suggested that they resort to cannibalism in order to bring about the group’s survival. He was the one who rallied everyone to understand the then-present necessity of eating the flesh of another human being. He convinced them that it was for the greater good of the group. Whetmore went even so far to say that even the victim had reason to be grateful, for he would die a quick death, avoiding the phlegmatic fate that would come from their imminent starvation. In fact, he said that he himself would prefer to be killed rather than starve to death. In this, he made a verbal contract with his fellow explorers, and through his idea, gave them hope of survival. This is why it came as such a sudden and painful shock when, at the the very last minute, he changed his mind and told everyone to wait yet another week; the defendant’s minds were already set on his previous idea and they had already begun
July 6th, 2010
Intro to Philosophy The Strange Case of the Speluncean Explorers This prompt poses many moral questions. My immediate, intuitive response was that the four defendants were guilty of the crime of Roger Whetmore’s murderer. If you look at the question as simply and literally, “Did they willfully take the life of another?,” the only possible answer is yes. However, the circumstances surrounding this problem were extreme, and that forces one to consider other factors in the problem. As a Judge on the Highest Court of the land, I would be required to give the defendants a completely fair trial. “Innocent until proven guilty” does not apply in a traditional sense here, for they do not need to be proven guilty; all four involved in the crime have clearly and repeatedly admitted that they killed Roger Whetmore in order to eat his flesh, hoping to survive until they were able to escape or be rescued from the confines of the cave. The real question at the heart of this issue is, “How does one define guilty?” Whetmore was the one who had initially suggested that they resort to cannibalism in order to bring about the group’s survival. He was the one who rallied everyone to understand the then-present necessity of eating the flesh of another human being. He convinced them that it was for the greater good of the group. Whetmore went even so far to say that even the victim had reason to be grateful, for he would die a quick death, avoiding the phlegmatic fate that would come from their imminent starvation. In fact, he said that he himself would prefer to be killed rather than starve to death. In this, he made a verbal contract with his fellow explorers, and through his idea, gave them hope of survival. This is why it came as such a sudden and painful shock when, at the the very last minute, he changed his mind and told everyone to wait yet another week; the defendant’s minds were already set on his previous idea and they had already begun