Well, then take my post as a thought experiment as well. A thought experiment creating the situation where it could be right to consider the practical difficulties even though the person asking you the question wants you not to.
edit: in particular, here, the person asking that question IMO could be rather more enlightened by the unwanted answer than by just giving him the answer that he wants to hear: “Yes, fine, the utility is maximized by killing the traveller” (or by some un-utilitarian stuff that he can consider irrational). The conversation involves giving people answers they may not want to hear.
A person asking a question is always interested in additional relevant facts. What additional facts are relevant depends on whether the question is a thought-experience or more practical (like your engineering example). Not all facts are relevant all the time.
Well, I think it is relevant to the question if the explicit set-up in the question permits alternative solution distinct from those listed. I’m not much of utilitarian either but I do believe that real world complications are extremely relevant to the morality.
It’s actually a very odd/special form of question, to those who grew up on write in rather than multiple choice answers. Here the person asking the question himself selects, out of multitude of possible solutions, one as special. While it is rude in some cultures to assume that not all of the solution space was explored, in other cultures it is not.
Well, then take my post as a thought experiment as well. A thought experiment creating the situation where it could be right to consider the practical difficulties even though the person asking you the question wants you not to.
edit: in particular, here, the person asking that question IMO could be rather more enlightened by the unwanted answer than by just giving him the answer that he wants to hear: “Yes, fine, the utility is maximized by killing the traveller” (or by some un-utilitarian stuff that he can consider irrational). The conversation involves giving people answers they may not want to hear.
A person asking a question is always interested in additional relevant facts. What additional facts are relevant depends on whether the question is a thought-experience or more practical (like your engineering example). Not all facts are relevant all the time.
Well, I think it is relevant to the question if the explicit set-up in the question permits alternative solution distinct from those listed. I’m not much of utilitarian either but I do believe that real world complications are extremely relevant to the morality.
It’s actually a very odd/special form of question, to those who grew up on write in rather than multiple choice answers. Here the person asking the question himself selects, out of multitude of possible solutions, one as special. While it is rude in some cultures to assume that not all of the solution space was explored, in other cultures it is not.