Overview of Doctor Who

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Doctor Who is a British show that features The Doctor, a Time Lord that travels through time visiting events that happened in the past and witnessing events that will happen in the future. In season 4, episode 3 of Doctor Who the Doctor and his companion, Donna, go back in time to the eve of Pompeii’s destruction in 79 A.D. in their TARDIS, Time and Relative Dimensions in Space. Once the Volcano begins to erupt Donna and the Doctor are the only ones with the means of escaping. The Doctor is forced to make a difficult decision when Donna argues that they have to save at least someone from the destruction. Here Donna is making an ethical decision and despite the circumstances that would rule against it they decide to save a family from the volcanic eruption. The philosophical issue that arises from this is: should people make the decision to save someone’s life despite the consequences that can arise. First I will argue that your moral belief should dictate your decision because from a determinist perspective the consequences are already determined. Then I will argue that the decision you make should align with the laws of nature. Finally, I will argue from an ethical standpoint that the decision to save lives despite the events that follow is the most moral decision.
I will assert that all decisions and consequences are already determined by forces beyond our control. This argument relates to the philosophical issue at hand because if the consequences are already determined then a person’s action was already pre-ordained and whatever happens was intended to be, by a power that an individual had no power over. In the situation of deciding whether or not to save a life the determinist would believe that what is supposed to happen wi...

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...ir sovereignty as an individual. Neglecting that person so that you can be popular is wrong. Just like neglecting to save one person because they’re not five people is also wrong.
All in all when the decision arises to save a life one must make an ethically sound decision. An ethically sound decision is one that doesn’t violate a person’s position as a sovereign individual and aligns itself with universal law. You must do this despite what the consequences are because they are not within your control.

Works Cited

Buroc, Marc A. Determinism and Causation Examples. Http://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/. N.p., 2004. Web. 19 Jan. 2014. .
"David Hume." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 20 Jan. 2014. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
"Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy." Stoicism []. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.

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