What Is the Point of the Example from Chapter 11

question 10

Multiple Choice

What is the point of the example from Chapter 11 in which you must choose between rescuing your mother or a famous cancer researcher from a burning building?

• A) To prove that act utilitarianism is not the correct normative theory.
• B) To show that some people are more useful to society than others.
• C) To demonstrate a particular kind of mistake that many people make in applying act utilitarianism to particular cases.
• D) To illustrate that act utilitarianism sometimes leads to surprising conclusions about what you should do.

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Definitions:

Observational Learning

A learning process through watching the behaviors of others and the outcomes of those behaviors, not through direct experience.

Spark

Typically refers to a small but bright flash of fire or electricity, often used metaphorically to describe the initiation or inspiration of something.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a previously extinguished response in the absence of further conditioning.

Extinct

A term describing a species, family, or larger group of organisms that no longer exists anywhere on Earth.