philosophy essay

Ethicist Bernard Williams posed the dilemma below in Questions That Matter. I did not create the scenario, but I add a few details. Please be assured that the intention here is to wrestle thoughtfully with a completely hypothetical situation, not to conjure troubling images or condone violence.

Jim finds himself in the central square of a small South American town. Tied up against the wall is a row of twenty Indians, most terrified, a few defiant, in front of them several armed men in uniform. A heavy man in a sweat-stained khaki shirt turns out to be the captain in charge and, after a good deal of questioning of Jim, establishes that Jim got there by accident while on a botanical expedition. The captain then explains that the Indians are a random group of the inhabitants who, after recent acts of protest against the government, are just about to be killed to remind other possible protestors of the advantages of not protesting. However, since Jim is an honored visitor from another land, the captain is happy to offer him a guest’s privilege of killing one of the Indians himself. If Jim accepts, then as a special mark of the occasion, the other Indians will be let off. Of course, if Jim refuses, then there is no special occasion, and the captain will do what he was about to do when Jim arrived, and kill them all. Jim, with some desperate recollection of schoolboy fiction, wonders whether if he got hold of a gun, he could hold the captain and the rest of the soldiers at bay, but it is quite clear from the setup that nothing of that kind is going to work: any attempt at that sort of thing will mean that all the Indians will be killed, and likely himself as well. The men against the wall, and the other villagers, understand the situation, and are obviously begging him to accept the captain’s offer. Jim, however, is accompanied by a friend who reminds him that they both have lived by the commandment “Thou shalt not kill,” and they both have fought against capital punishment in their homeland. Should Jim accept the offer and kill one to save nineteen, or let the captain finish the planned execution of all twenty? Don’t make a hasty decision. Too much is at stake. Justify your decision. How do consequences and/or rules impact your decision?