In the early months of 2017, driving up the hill to my parents house, we pulled behind a small hatchback struggling to make it up the hill. We watched from a safe distance as the car attempted 3 times to make it to the top, only to slide back down. We decided that, even though we were hungry, and it was around -20 degrees outside, it would be the right thing to do to help them. We got out of our truck and pushed the car up the hill to supplement what the cars tires could not. The couple made it up the hill and proceeded to drive away without so much as a “thank you”. Instead of being angry at the lack of manners, we laughed and generally felt good inside to have helped someone in need. I feel that this instance fits well into the Utilitarian theory. As our text states, utilitarians understand “good” to be happiness or pleasure. Regardless of not being thanked by this couple, we still felt pleasure in knowing that we helped someone in need.
1 Comment for “M2 (Taba)”
ljcassell
says:There could be some Irony in this situation because it actually shows multiple different ethical belief principles mention in the book. The couple could have felt they would have a social obligation to say thanks. However maybe they felt that doing could potentially get them stuck again. They could see this as having negative impact on everyone involved because they would be stuck again and your help would have been for naught. So, by driving off the net positivity was greater than if they stopped to say thanks even if they did break a social obligation to you. In this regard by being rude to you they could have been practicing the Utilitarianism school of thought.