Date: ___ / ___ / ___
RULES, HABITS, AND WHIMS
Sometimes circumstances make us decide between two options that we have not chosen, and there are even occasions in which we must choose although we would prefer not to.
Aristotle, one of the first philosophers to tackle these questions, came up with the following example. A boat is carrying important cargo from one port to another. In midpassage, it is caught in a tremendous storm. The only way of saving the boat and its crew, it seems, is to jettison the cargo, which, although valuable, is a burden. The captain faces the following problem: Should he jettison the cargo or risk riding out the storm with it in the hold in the hope that the weather will improve and the boat hold out? If he abandons his cargo, it will of course be because he prefers that to taking the risk, but it would be unfair to say that he wants to abandon it. What he really wants is to arrive in port with boat, crew, and cargo intact; that is what would best suit him. Given the stormy circumstances, however, he prefers saving his own life and the lives of his crew to saving his cargo, however valuable it may be. If only the wretched storm had not blown up! But the storm is not a matter of choice, but something given, something that happens, like it or not. What he can choose, on the other hand, is how he acts in the face of danger. If he abandons the cargo, he does it because he wants to, while simultaneously not wanting to. He wants to live, to save himself and the men who depend on him, to save his boat; he does not want to lose the cargo and the profit it stands for, for which reason he will abandon it only with the greatest reluctance. He would unquestionably prefer not to be in the critical situation of having to choose between losing his worldly goods and losing his life. There is no other choice, however, and he must decide. He will choose the course he prefers the one that best suits him. We could say that he is free because he cannot be otherwise, free to choose in circumstances he did not elect to confront.
Almost always, when we are faced with choosing what to do in difficult or important situations we find ourselves in the same boat as Aristotle’s captain. Our choices are not always so brutal, however. (…). We do not in general spend our lives attending only to what it suits us to do or not to do. Fortunately, we are not usually so beset by life (…) Frankly, I doubt that any one of these acts has stirred up much deliberation in you: Do I get up or don’t I? Do I shower or not? To breakfast or not to breakfast, that is the question! The dilemma of the poor captain about to founder, trying to decide on the spur of the moment whether or not to ditch his cargo, does not seem all like the morning decisions you sleepwalked through. You acted unthinkingly, almost by instinct –it’s easier like that, isn’t it? At times wondering too much about what we are going to do can paralyze us. (…) but I would like to ask you now, in retrospect, what you didn’t ask yourself this morning: Why did I do what I did? Why this particular movement, why not its opposite, or some other? (…)
Let’s look at the different motives behind your morning activities. You understand what is meant by a motive in this context: it is the reason you have, or think you have, for doing anything, the most acceptable explanation for your actions when you think about them, the answer you come up with to the question “Why am I doing this?”. Well, one kind of motive you recognize is that I tell you to do this or that. Motives of this kind we will call rules. In other cases, your motive is that you have always done certain things in the same way, almost without thinking, or that you see around you everyone else doing things in ways they are used to; that set of motives we will call habits. In other cases, as when you kicked the can, the motive seems to be a lack of motive –just something you felt like doing, something you wanted to do. Supposing we call these actions whims?.
Fernando Savater, Amador, chapter II
Vocabulary:
Whim: capricho; totackle: abordar; to jettison: tirar por la borda; burden: carga; Unfair: injusto; wretched: desdichado, penoso;to blow up: estallar, saltar por los aires; to stand for: representar, significar; reluctance: reticencia; wordly: del mundo; beset: acorralado, rodeado; to kick: dar un puntapié
ACTIVITIES:
1.- The boat and storm serves as an example of moral dilemma(it is a situation that we have to choose between two options)
A. In this situation What are the two bad options?
B The captain isforced to choose, or would he decidenot to?
C If you werethe captain, what would you choose? Why?
2.- Savater says: “There is no other choice, however, and he must decide”
D. Do you think that everyone will have to face such this moral dilemma (sooner or later)?
E. Writesome moraldilemmasthinkthat sooner or lateryou're likely tocome your way.