I was at a birthday party tonight and started chatting with a fellow aspiring to produce television. Upon hearing that I worked in ethics, he perked up and told me that there was a particular ethical dilemma that he's been wrestling with for months. He imagined a situation where a stranger rear-ended his car, and he was not seriously injured but the stranger was. If it was the stranger's fault, he wanted to know whether he should call an ambulance.

I was somewhat stunned by the question, and struggled to find a philosophical way of telling him that it was perfectly obvious that he must call an ambulance. After a moment or two, I asked him whether he thought he should call 911 if someone slipped off his balcony and fell to the ground, narrowly missing him but splattering blood on his shirt, and that seemed to do the trick. I also encountered a fellow who thought stealing music via file sharing was okay.

On a related note, the danger with being a philosopher is that one's expertise is in areas that are people are quite defensive about (unlike, say, physics). Much less likely to piss someone off or become an arrogant ass if you're a chemist.

On an unrelated note, I've come to think that Kant's wonderful turn of phrase, "an impartial rational spectator could take no delight in seeing the uninterrupted prosperity of a being without a good will," expresses my feelings about many a relationship, except that it should read, "an impartial rational spectator could take no delight in seeing a woman be attracted to that tool."  ¶ 3:33 AM