Titanic :: essays research papers

<a href="http//www.geocities.com/vaksam/">Sam Vaknins Psychology, Philosophy, Economics and Foreign Affairs Web SitesThe film " large" is riddled with moral dilemmas. In one of the scenes, the proprietor of Star Line, the mailping company that owned the now-sinking Unsinkable, joins a lowered life-boat. The tortured expression on his hardihood demonstrates that even he experiences more than unease at his own conduct. Prior to the disaster, he instructs the captain to adopt a policy dangerous to the ship. Indeed, it proves fatal. A complicating figure was the fact that only women and children were allowed by the officers in charge into the lifeboats. Another was the discrimination against Third Class passengers. The boats sufficed only to half the number of those on board and the depression Class, High Society passengers were preferred over the Low-Life immigrants under deck. Why do we all feel that the owner should eat stayed on and faced his inevitable dy ing? Because we judge him responsible for the demise of the ship. Additionally, his wrong instructions motivated by greed and the pursuit of celebrity were a crucial contributing factor. The owner should have been punished (in his future) for things that he has done (in his past). This is intuitively appealing. Would we have rendered the same judgement had the Titanics fate been the outcome of accident and accident alone? If the owner of the ship could have had no control over the circumstances of its horrible ending would we have still condemned him for saving his life? Less severely, perhaps. So, the fact that a moral entity has ACTED (or omitted, or refrained from acting) in its past is essential in dispensing with future rewards or punishments. The "product liability" approach also fits here. The owner (and his "long implements of war" manufacturer, engineers, builders, etc.) of the Titanic were deemed responsible because they implicitly contracted with their passengers. They made a representation (which was explicit in their case but is implicit in most others) "This ship was constructed with knowledge and forethought. The best design was employed to avoid danger. The best materials to increase pleasure." That the Titanic sank was an irreversible breach of this contract. In a way, it was an act of abrogation of duties and obligations. The owner/manufacturer of a product must compensate the consumers should his product harm them in any manner that they were not explicitly, clearly, visibly and repeatedly warned against.