首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
In the grand scheme of things Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are normally thought of as good guys. Between them, they came
In the grand scheme of things Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are normally thought of as good guys. Between them, they came
admin
2012-12-30
57
问题
In the grand scheme of things Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill are normally thought of as good guys. Between them, they came up with the ethical theory known as utilitarianism. The goal of this theory is encapsulated in Bentham’s aphorism that "the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the foundation of morals and legislation."
It all sounds fine and dandy until you start applying it to particular cases. A utilitarian, for example, might approve of the occasional torture of suspected terrorists—for the greater happiness of everyone else, you understand. That type of observation has led Daniel Bartels at Columbia University and David Pizarro at Cornell to ask what sort of people actually do have a utilitarian outlook on life. Their answers, just published in Cognition, are not comfortable.
One of the classic techniques used to measure a person’s willingness to behave in a utilitarian way is known as trolleyology.
The subject of the study is challenged with thought experiments involving a runaway railway trolley or train carriage. All involve choices, each of which leads to people’s deaths. For example: there are five railway workmen in the path of a runaway carriage. The men will surely be killed unless the subject of the experiment, a bystander in the story, does something. The subject is told he is on a bridge over the tracks. Next to him is a big, heavy stranger. The subject is informed that his own body would be too light to stop the train, but that if he pushes the stranger onto the tracks, the stranger’s large body will stop the train and save the five lives. That, unfortunately, would kill the stranger.
Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro knew from previous research that around 90% of people refuse the utilitarian act of killing one individual to save five. What no one had previously inquired about, though, was the nature of the remaining 10%.
To find out, the two researchers gave 208 undergraduates a battery of trolleyological tests and measured, on a four-point scale, how utilitarian their responses were. Participants were also asked to respond to a series of statements intended to get a sense of their individual psychologies. These statements included, "I like to see fist fights", "The best way to handle people is to tell them what they want to hear", and "When you really think about it, life is not worth the effort of getting up in the morning". Each was asked to indicate, for each statement, where his views lay on a continuum that had "strongly agree" at one end and "strongly disagree" at the other. These statements, and others like them, were designed to measure, respectively, psychopathy, Machiavellianism and a person’s sense of how meaningful life is.
Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro then correlated the results from the trolleyology with those from the personality tests. They found a strong link between utilitarian answers to moral dilemmas (push the fat guy off the bridge) and personalities that were psychopathic. Machiavellian or tended to view life as meaningless. Utilitarians, this suggests, may add to the sum of human happiness, but they are not very happy people themselves.
That does not make utilitarianism wrong. Crafting legislation—one of the main things that Bentham and Mill wanted to improve— inevitably involves riding roughshod over someone’s interests. Utilitarianism provides a plausible framework for deciding who should get trampled. The results obtained by Dr Bartels and Dr Pizarro do, though, raise questions about the type of people who you want making the laws. Psychopathic, Machiavellian misanthropes? Apparently, yes.
What function does the first sentence in the second paragraph serve?
选项
A、It further explains the theory of utilitarianism.
B、It forms a contrast to general cases of utilitarianism.
C、It acts as the connecting link to bring up the theme.
D、It gives an example to explain utilitarianism in particular cases.
答案
C
解析
篇章结构题。本文开篇介绍了功利主义这一概念,第二段首句提出“It all sounds fine and dandy until you start applying it to particular cases.”这一个人观点,之后用恐怖主义嫌疑分子受刑为例说明功利主义可能出现的问题,由此引出Daniel Bartels和David Pizarro的实验,从第三段开始就是对两人实验过程的具体说明,可见,第二段首句为一过渡句,承上启下,由此引出全文主旨,故[C]为答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/23aO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
Historicaldevelopmentsofthepasthalfcenturyandtheinventionofmodemtelecommunicationandtransportationtechnologiesha
LastmonthHansonTransmissionsInternational,amakerofgearboxesforwindturbines,waslistedontheLondonStockExchange.
In17th-centuryNewEngland,almosteveryonebelievedinwitches.Strugglingtosurviveinavastandsometimesunforgivingland
The______providesgreatphilosophicalinsightIntothenatureofthelinguisticcommunication.
Patents,saidThomasJefferson,shoulddraw"alinebetweenthethingswhichareworthtothepublictheembarrassmentofanexc
ThecapitalofAustraliais
MoviesarethemostpopularformofentertainmentformillionsofAmericans.Theygotothemovietoescapetheirnormaleveryd
Untilrecentlydaydreamingwasgenerallyconsideredeitherawasteoftimeorasymptomofneurotictendencies,andhabitualday
ThedayofprotestingatEnglishWikipediabroughtmeasurableresults,1.______thesite’sadministratorsreported:fourmillion
Astrangethingabouthumansistheircapacityforblindrage.Rageispresumablyanemotionresultingfromsurvivalintuition,
随机试题
把提供的各种信息重新组合,朝着一个方向、寻找出一个正确答案或最佳方案的思维称为_______。
A.自身免疫性溶血性贫血B.遗传性球形细胞增多症C.阵发性睡眠性血红蛋白尿D.G一6一PD缺乏症E.海洋性贫血女性,42岁,表现为贫血和脾大,伴有脱发、皮疹、关节红肿、面部红斑,最可能的诊断是
()是宅基地使用权的权利主体。
500万元-2000万元工程的竣工结算审查时限为从接到竣工结算报告和完整的结算资料之日起()。
塔、容器在安装或现场组装前应检查设备或半成品、零部件的制造质量,应符合()要求方可验收。
作为宏观经济分析的重要工具,简单的菲利普斯曲线概述的是失业率与()之间的相互关系。
认知策略
某夫妇通过创设“宝贝回家”寻子网,帮助走失、被拐儿童回家,唤起社会对走失、被拐儿童的关注。“宝贝回家”寻子网的建立所体现的对未成年人的保护是()。
局域网是分布范围在几千米以内,不超过()的计算机网络。
A、Informationtechnology.B、Computerprogramming.C、Computerprocessing.D、Dataprocessing.D对话中男士想学电脑编程(com—puterprogramming),
最新回复
(
0
)