Some years back, I came upon my husband’s old criminal law text and started to read it. One of the cases that caught my eye concerned shipwrecked sailors, and the surrounding discussion touched on an unsettling thought experiment proposed by an ancient Roman philosopher named Carneades. It goes like this: Two drowning sailors find a […]

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NOTE: Some questions contain spoilers. In disaster situations, is it right to save women and children first? What moral justifications exist for your answer? Discuss the thought experiment referred to in Grace’s trial, also known as “The Plank of Carneades.” Is either the first or second swimmer to reach the plank justified in pushing the […]

Lifeboat #14 At just twenty-three feet long, seven feet two inches wide, lifeboat 14 was overloaded with 39 passengers. The passengers, in order of appearance

The below text from The Lifeboat is also available for download as a PDF here.   We passed jagged splinters of wood and half-submerged barrels and snakelike lengths of twisted rope. I recognized a deck chair and a straw hat and what looked like a child’s doll floating together, bleak reminders of the pretty weather […]