Hypothetical experiment
Posted by Wonky 11 years, 6 months ago to Philosophy
I created this hypothetical experiment to help me sort out my friends on Facebook. The Facebook post reads:
"Take four young monkeys and put two of each into two cages. Place a banana dispenser which dispenses two bananas at the meager cost of a small electric shock into each of the two cages.
"In cage 1, there is no intervention whatsoever. In cage 2, each time the food dispenser is activated, the researcher enters the cage and takes one of the bananas from the monkey that activated the dispenser and gives it to the other monkey.
"Next, begin to amplify the shock until it is very close to lethal.
"In which cage do you suspect that one of the monkeys will kill the other (or the researcher) first?"
"Take four young monkeys and put two of each into two cages. Place a banana dispenser which dispenses two bananas at the meager cost of a small electric shock into each of the two cages.
"In cage 1, there is no intervention whatsoever. In cage 2, each time the food dispenser is activated, the researcher enters the cage and takes one of the bananas from the monkey that activated the dispenser and gives it to the other monkey.
"Next, begin to amplify the shock until it is very close to lethal.
"In which cage do you suspect that one of the monkeys will kill the other (or the researcher) first?"
