Comment on Stupid Questions Open Thread Round 3

Sun, 08 Jul 2012 19:59:37 GMT

Well, lets say we posit some starting condition, say the condition of the universe on the day I turned 17. I am down one path from that initial condition, and a great many other worlds exist in which things went a little differently. I take it that it's not (unfortunately) a physical or logical impossibility that in one or more of those branches, I have ten years down the line committed a murder.

Now, there are a finite number of murder-paths, and a finite number of non-murder-paths, and my path is identical to one of them. But it seems to me that whether or not I murder someone, the total number of murder-paths and the total number of non-murder-paths is the same? Is this totally off base? I hope that it is.

Anyway, if that's true, then by not murdering, all I've done is put myself off of a murder-path. There's one less murder in my world, but not one less murder absolutely. So, fine, live in my world and don't worry about the others. But whence that rule? That seems arbitrary, and I'm not allowed to apply it in order to localize my ethical considerations in any other case.

Discuss