The right thing was to put your comrades first! A kid with a weapon is arguably more dangerous that a bloodthirsty adult. However difficult, threats need to be eliminated. Soldiers need to be equipped with tranquilizer firearms. And threats like those referred to, contained and transported to civilised humane internment until the threat they pose no longer exists! And they returned with our apologies and suitable financial compensation!
Alan B.

What’s the right thing to do?

The outcomes speak loudly. A war zone is not renowned as a place of compassion: Again the outcomes speak loudly of the reasoning behind the imperative to show no mercy.

The question then is “ Do you wish to win the war, or play war games as the alternative”?

The prevarication mentality displayed by the author on the subject of shooting the enemy, surely leads to another question the rest of us have been asking for some time now; why have Politicians presided over the pillorying of our own elite forces and their actions under similar circumstances in the Afghanistan war?

Theirs is dumb-arse thinking that costs lives and honourable reputations.

Dan.

How typically academic. Talk around in useless circles & come up with the wrong answer.

The obvious answer is to imobilise4 the intruders until the action is finished. No moralising, no injury, but much too simple for pretend educated folk.

Will a soldier be less dead if he was shot by a child ?

Steven – You cite Confucius favourably for three ways to learn wisdom: reflection, imitation, and experience. They may be nice things to do but there is no reason to think that they will make someone wise.

The problem is, how do we know when wisdom has been achieved or who it is that is wise?

Some will say, for example, that McNab acted wisely while others will say no, he was a fool. Who is to say which assessment is correct?

Surely it is a person’s worldview that is crucial here. If a person is an atheist, then it is hard to even make sense of the notion of wisdom. In an atheistic universe there is no particular way that the world is meant to be because everything just happened into existence, for no purpose. So nothing is meant to be one way rather than another. There really isn’t anything to be wise about – except perhaps this one point.

Alternatively, if one holds to one of the theistic belief systems, the important thing is to try and establish which, if any of them, is true (they can’t all be as they contradict each other). If one decides that one is true then it can make sense to talk about being wise in view of that belief system.

The nature of the authors conclusions on What’s the right thing to do, reflects the obvious disconnect of the Academics intelligence.

He hints at an academically convoluted conclusion of wisdom based on his view of superior knowledge and education being the foundation of such wisdom in a mix of Eastern philosophy which alludes to an interpretation from these Academic papers.

A New Theory of Wisdom: Integrating Intelligence and Morality*
Wang Fengyan, Zheng Hong Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, China.

http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED535738.pdf

That makes him a Chinese apologist doesn’t it. How subtle is the enemy?

Dan

What to do.
First don't go invading foreign countries;
When it all goes pear shaped you've got no-one but yourself to blame.

Secondly, divert the tram or not divert the tram;

There's no real right answer. do nothing, people die (as assumed by the argument) but it's not your fault.
Do something, less people die (as assumed by the argument) but it was by your hand and you will live with the guilt.

Push the guy off the bridge.
That's murder and there's no certainty the tram will stop from one person anyway.
It may be 6 dead not 5.

If you assume that one big person can stop the tram, then what makes you automatically assume that all 5 men on the tracks will die?
Won't the tram stop after hitting the first 2 normal sized men?
And if you're over the tracks and can see whats happening, then why not just just yell out to the workers below and let them know, assuming there's enough time to throw someone off a bridge? (There are guardrails)

There's no certainty that people will die either from the tram as they may see it at the last second and jump out the way.
With 5 on the tracks, (10 eyes) it only takes 1 person to see the tram coming and alert the others;
With 1 on the tracks (2 eyes) and his back may be turned, there may be no way to prevent a tragedy.

Ultimately, the ends don't justify the means, that's a terrorist mindset.

The reason why my points are all valid, is because there's another important point that you failed to consider in your black and white arguments, 'the grey area', aka 'uncertainty' and you demonstrated it well in your stories about the soldiers.

- That point is, that things don't always turn out as you expect.
And that's why all my 'grey area points' are valid and worthy of consideration just as much as your close-minded poorly devised black and white thought experiments.

'Imitate'...
I just can't pass up this gift horse.
Most of the university kids you see depicted these days are mentally deranged.
What does that say about those who teach them?

“there are three ways to gain wisdom-reflection, imitation, and experience.” There is a fourth, much deeper way: the practice of Vipassana meditation, the non-sectarian technique taught by the Buddha. Human beings, like everything else, consist of minute particles which arise and pass away with great rapidity, no continuing substance, no “I, me, mine,” nothing to cling to. Many human problems arise from ignorance of this reality. If we examine ourselves at subtle levels, we find a flow of sensations, and that we react to these sensations as good, bad or neutral, which turns to craving and aversion. This is the source of disharmony within and between humans. When you learn to observe these sensations with equanimity, you can lead a peaceful, harmonious, productive life, good for you and good for others, whether or not you adhere to a religion. And you will be better placed to deal with whatever issues arise.

JP: you say that “If a person is an atheist, then it is hard to even make sense of the notion of wisdom.” I’m an atheist; I think that whether or not there is a God or gods, we are responsible for our own choices and well-being. And if you read my earlier post, you will see that you are quite wrong about atheists. Since 1973 I have done voluntary work to help others gain the benefits I have had from practising Vipassana meditation.

Faustino – I think you miss my point. If the universe has just happened into being unintentionally, i.e. no Creator/God has brought it into existence for some purpose, then there is no ultimate point to our existence. Our existence would be ultimately meaningless.

You say “we are responsible for our own choices and well-being”. If atheism is true, to whom or what do you think we are responsible? Whatever you might answer to that question, I would ask, “Why?”

Yes, you can make choices, but as an atheist, what makes one choice “right” and another choice “wrong”? If there is no purpose to our existence then all choices are arbitrary.

Please explain why this is not so. Thank-you.