Comments on: “Lifeboat” Activity with Children’s Hospital Patients https://plato-philosophy.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/ Philosophy Learning and Teaching Organization Fri, 13 May 2016 14:32:48 +0000 hourly 1 By: Hi tech Institute https://plato-philosophy.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12376 Fri, 13 May 2016 14:32:48 +0000 https://www.philosophyforchildren.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12376 Thanks for helping me to think more about this "Children's Hospital Patients".

Regards
Natasa | Laptop

]]> By: Jana https://plato-philosophy.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12377 Mon, 20 Apr 2015 15:56:03 +0000 https://www.philosophyforchildren.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12377 I agree completely that young people should come out of this exercise understanding that there is no good ethical choice here, and that weighing one life against another is, as you say, a very slippery path. I thought it was very interesting when I did this with the children at the hospital, that they focused much less on pitching lives against each other, than on thinking about what their personal choices might be for the characters they were portraying. It is a rich exercise, if taught well, that helps us to see that all lives have immeasurable value. Thanks for helping me to think more about this!

]]> By: Oshrat https://plato-philosophy.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12378 Mon, 20 Apr 2015 15:52:40 +0000 https://www.philosophyforchildren.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12378 Thank you for your response. I think what bothers me here is that the way that it is set up, with two lines about each person's age, family and professional situation, it implies that this information is what determines the "right" answer – who should be sacrificed and who should be saved. The moment you pitch lives against each other in that way, you go down a very slippery path. Is it "ethical" to chose the homeless person as the one who should die? What I mean by futility is that I believe that in such a situation, should it ever, God forbid, happen in real life, the decision will most likely not be based on rational deliberations, as "life is far from the improbable thought experiment which neutralizes the fear of death to a calmly ponderable idea", as T.W. Adorno said.
I suppose with a great, sensitive teacher, the exercise can provoke good discussions, but the children should not come out of it believing that there is a right, "ethical" choice here.

]]> By: Jana https://plato-philosophy.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12379 Mon, 20 Apr 2015 04:16:45 +0000 https://www.philosophyforchildren.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12379 Thanks for your comment. In my view, the focus of the exercise is not to teach children that it is almost impossible to put a value on somebody's life, but to allow them the space to reflect about the difficulty of this exercise. In every conversation I have ever had about this activity, students quickly see that part of the difficulty is that every life is inherently and inestimably valuable. There are many potential characters in this exercise, and it just so happened that in this particular class the oldest character was homeless and without a partner or children, but this is not always the case. I'm not sure what you mean when you say that these kinds of thought experiments should have "no other point than to prove their own futility," as I think the point is to illuminate the complex and challenging nature of many ethical questions.

]]> By: Oshrat https://plato-philosophy.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12380 Mon, 20 Apr 2015 04:09:59 +0000 https://www.philosophyforchildren.org/lifeboat-activity-with-childrens-hospital-patients/#comment-12380 Hi Jana,
I just read this post, and I admit that I'm extremely disturbed by the exercise. The lines of the children as they impersonate the people in the boat are touching, and one could say that they come up with the best possible solution, but isn't the problem that there is no good solution? Shouldn't the focus of this exercise, if it is really carried out, be that it is nearly impossible to to put a value on somebody's life, let alone to rank it against others? Of course, I wasn't there and didn't hear the conversations, but the fact that the homeless person was "sacrificed" (and wanted to sacrifice herself) triggers all sorts of unconfortable questions in my head. It seems to me that such exercises should be handled with extreme caution, or avoided entirely, lest a "hierarchy" of lives based on one's contribution to the economy and one's life choices or absence of choice (the homeless person didn't have a family, but maybe she was the beloved friend of some lonely people who were highly dependent on her?) is subreptitiously reinforced. The fact that in the setup, the homeless person is also the oldest, and has no family, seems to push the outcome in a given direction which, again, profoundly bothers me. I strongly believe that these thought experiments should have no other point than to prove their own futility.

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