Juliet Rojas
Biomedical Ethics
Professor Marsh
October 3rd, 2013
An Analysis on the Utilization of Thought Experiments
Judith Jarvis Thomson, author of the article, A Defense of Abortion,
has made quite the impact in the realm of philosophy through her use of the
famous violinist example. Through this thought experiment she prompts for
you to think about a situation in which a famous violinist is on the verge of
death. The violinists’ death is one that only you, the reader in this situation,
have the power to save him from, because you are the only person with the
type of blood he needs. Unfortunately for you, once his fans find this out, they
go out and kidnap you and hook you up to the famous violinist so that he can
keep on living (Thomson, pp.47-66).
The purpose of this example is to convey her argument on the topic of
abortion and how in certain cases it can be morally permissible to conduct
one. Some may argue that her use of this example may give very unrealistic
moral advice and unparalleled to the situation of abortion, but on the
contrary, the famous violinist example has ultimately suggested that thought
experiments can make for a much more compelling argument when
discussing such arduous issues. I concur with her use of thought
experiments to portray situations in the hypothetical sense. I believe that
through the use of thought experiments debating topics that are vulnerable to
cultural and gender biases are compromised of these biases.
1. Cultural Bias
Let us begin by analyzing the use of the famous violinist thought
experiment and its power to minimize cultural bias. In China, the policy
known as the “one-child policy,” which states that a woman can legally
bring into the world only one child per household. This policy has lead to
strong encouragement of producing only baby boys in order to keep overpopulation at bay. FinancialTimes.com reports that in China there have
been more than 330,000,000 abortions committed, with the prevalent
reason being that the sex of the baby was female.
Now, going back to Thomson’s hypothetical situation, how would a
cultural bias be diminished through the use of a thought experiment if
someone in the United States were reading about abortion versus someone
in China? The answer is simple. When the American person, who is in
agreement with the belief that abortion is morally impermissible in all
situations, puts him or herself into the situation of a Chinese person, it
urges them to think past the what they believe is morally impermissible, and
rather in the context of the culture in which the situation is taking place. For
the person in China who believes it is wrong to have a child if it is not a boy
will have to, similarly to the American person, take into consideration the
culture in which the situation is taking place. The violinist example
promotes the reader to contextualize the abortion decision’s cultural
imperative, which enables for the determination of its moral permissibility in
a non-confounding manner.
2. Gender Pre-disposition
In addition to thought experiments minimizing cultural biases in
arguments such as abortion, they are also useful in reducing the effect of
the gender predisposition. For the most part, a male would feel less
compelled to consider himself pregnant because it is biologically unnatural
for men to become pregnant. Conveniently, thought experiments such as
the violinist example enable for a biological indifference to the situation.
Through the thought experiment, our male participant is interactive within
the abortion debate because his life is at stake. He is now held accountable
for choosing whether or not he wants to continue helping the violinist live.
This no longer entails having to think about actually carrying a baby in your
womb for 9 months, but more so thinking about what it would be like if the
situation affected you directly.
3. Unrealistic Moral Advice
For those who believe that thought experiments are irrelevant to the
actual importance of the situation in its innate context, it is plausible see
how they may interpret the hypothetical situations to be lending unrealistic
moral advice. The metaphorical examples that are used in thought
experiments are subtly related to the situations in which they allude to such
that they may be perceived as having no moral imperative by those who
are not prone to facing the moral dilemma caused by the situation.
However, the purpose of thought experiments is to exemplify the situation
in such a manner that innate biases caused by biological and demographic
traits do not affect one’s evaluation of whether or not the situation is morally
permissible.
In summary, I strongly support the use of thought experiments since
they are beneficial to conceptualizing moral dilemmas in a way that
minimizes biases. As we have examined, they are especially useful in
dilemmas where cultural and gender predispositions are exist, because
they allow for a broader evaluation of the situation altogether, rather than
the topic alone.
References
Judith Jarvis Thomson, “ A Defense of Abortion.” pp.47-66 from Philosophy
and Public Affairs 1: 1 (1971). ©
FinancialTimes.com < http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/6724580a-8d64-11e282d2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2gj0zAiAW>