The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas

See update at: http://r-p-e.blogspot.com/2007/03/ethics-in-ones-who-walk-away-from.html as well… – esp for discussion of the story in more detail..

Note: If you are a student looking at this to help with a paper/essay on the Omelas short story – that is great, we hope something here helps – but be sure to give a reference – and send me and e-mail to let me know if you find the material useful..

Dave W: [email protected]

In the RPE101 (Philosophical and Ethical Arguing) class today, we talked about the Ursula Le Guin short story The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas – as a focus for concerns about Utilitarianism and responsibility…

There is a wikipedia piece at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_From_Omelas – which explains the story – but also see the essay at http://www.sfu.ca/~etiffany/teaching/phil120/omelas1_120.html – whose conclusions I am not convinced by: but ask yourself the questions

1 – Would you stay in the city – knowing your happiness was at the expense of a suffering child?

2 – Do we not anyway enjoy an easy life at the direct expense of others in the developing world already? Are we not just at guilty as the Omelas-people who choose to stay?

responses welcome…
Dave