Will he act for the sake of utility? Or cooperation? Science News magazine reports, as noted by a resourceful John Derbyshire, that contemporary magazine Nature will publish experiments conducted by neurologists to better understand the vitality of empathy in ethical judgment — with especial focus on that operation in a damaged brain. "The researchers propose," wrote Science News, "that prefrontal damage dilutes emotional reactions to harm that one inflicts on others. People with such damage thus solve moral dilemmas by following social conventions for helping as many folks as possible and hurting as few as possible, rather than by considering personal feelings."
What seemed to diminish the study's comparison of sentimentality and reason, however, were both the familiarity of scenarios and the narrow margin outside of sensible choices. One example, holding the power to prevent or acquiesce to the stilling of a child, was a suppressed and disfigured memory of MASH's Hawkeye, unforgettable through a blubbering Alan Alda — so one might have the wrong kind of vicarious experience. Another example begged what logical or sympathetic action would justify, all things the same, committing manslaughter of five instead of one.
I was reminded of a situation once posited by Glenn Reynolds. If you were in 2005 New Orleans and urged to evacuate, but had transport space so limited that bringing along the family dog meant forgoing vital supplies or even your neighbor, would you leave Rover to a watery end? Reynolds, in his famous dispassion, stated that he would place the life of man well over man's best friend, and received a swell of letters from indignant readers.
But the hypothesis was a good one; it provokes in a way that others couldn't. So in John's case: if Long Island were about to become a shoal and Boris didn't fit in the Derbyshire car, would he — ? Step back. Are dogs people? They aren't. Can dogs swim? They can. May lost dogs be replaced? Nominally, by all means. That is, anyway, subjectio the mind deploys in an argument with the heart, an argument it will on average lose.