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An Objectivist on a Life Boat

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Paul McKeever

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  • 4 weeks later...

You have to think about the whole situation.

If you are weak you couldn'tattack and eat the other person if your stronger you would only have to wait (none of you should be expected to sacrifice) if both of you are equally strong waiting to see who outlasts the other would even be ''fair''.

The one who survives the longest could eat the others corpse.

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Oddly enough, people don't generally talk about what would happen in a lifeboat full of altruists. At first blush it would seem that the person with the most to live for would have to jump overboard.

Well, people don't generally talk about what would happen if every human being was an altruist.

In the lifeboat with two altruists, Peter and Michael, it would go like this: Peter would first kill himself so that Michael could be rescued. Michael would keep himself alive, until the moment he would see a ship in the horizon. Once the ship came closer, and tried to pick him out of the water, he would try to inform the ship either by shouting or by hand signals, that Peter is dead, and that there are no other survivors, so that the boats crew doesn't have to waste their lives searching for survivors. Right after this, Michael would kill himself, so the boat's crew wouldn't have to spend their resources to pick him out of the water.

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