David: We're getting some emails where Louis... actually, I got one email saying, "Some of
the things your cohost says remind me of Carl Pilkington," of course, the British podcaster.
"Thought you should know. You should ask Louis some deep philosophical questions." And there
may be an opportunity here for a new Louis segment. I was thinking Louis the Ethicist,
maybe, or something like Morality with Motamedi, or something like that, where we just ask
Louis kind of these very popular moral or ethical dilemmas.
Louis: I like the latter. That has a nice ring to it, I like the alliteration.
David: Give me your thoughts on is it morally OK to steal bread to feed your starving family?
Like, just to see what Louis will come up with. What would you think of that?
Louis: You're asking me if I had... if either my family starves or I steal bread, that's
my only options?
David: Right. Right. Is it OK to...
Louis: And you're not... you're asking me if I would do it, or if it's morally OK?
David: Well, what's your thought? I mean, just give... you know...
Louis: I think anyone would do it.
David: And is it OK? Would it be morally OK? If there's some judge, you know, I'm not saying
God, but if there's some judge of whether it is OK, it's... theft is theft, right? You
would agree with that?
Louis: Right.
David: But is it morally acceptable, by whatever standard you use to judge this, to steal food
in the case that your family is starving? Bearing in mind that somebody else may starve
because they're having their food stolen.
Louis: Is it moral? No. But there are different levels here, right?
David: OK.
Louis: It's not like I'm murdering someone directly.
David: OK. So moral relativism is what you're employing here?
Louis: Yeah.
David: You could be doing something far worse, so therefore...
Louis: I could be, yeah.
David: All right. That's not a particularly strong argument, is it? What do you guys think
back there? That's not a great argument, just like well, at least I'm not murdering...
Louis: Well, if he's asking me if I would do it, I would do it.
David: But is it morally OK? In other words, the justification that well, they would've
starved otherwise, is that enough for you to make you feel like morally it is right
to steal in that case?
Louis: I would feel fine.
David: OK. Well, how should I even follow up with this?
Natan Pakman: Well, you can first try to figure out...
David: Is his mic even... we can't... we can't hear him, right?
Louis: We can't hear him, we can't hear him.
David: Let's see if we can turn his mic on. That's a good start.
Louis: You're still not going to hear him.
David: Well, what's... what's that? We should find out...
Natan: Is my mic on?
David: Yeah, it's on.
Natan: Well, I mean, we should first figure out if Louis has morality before you ask him
a lot of questions about whether a specific action is or isn't...
Louis: OK, no microphone picked that up.
David: We need some... we need some context. That's right. So, Louis, is it OK to murder?
Are there any cases where it's OK to murder?
Louis: Yeah, of course.
David: There are?
Louis: Yeah.
David: Like what?
Louis: If someone's trying to kill me, I have no problem killing them.
David: Self-defense?
Louis: Yeah, for example.
David: Anything other than self-defense?
Louis: In defense of someone else.
David: OK.
Louis: If someone just is completely unhinged and needs to be put down.
David: OK, so we're just...
Louis: To prevent... to avert some type of disaster or what have you.
David: There are many cases where you would be OK with murder.
Louis: Yeah.
David: OK. Is there any case that you can imagine where...
Louis: Can't we... shouldn't we be saving some of these questions for another segment
like this? What, are you just hitting me with all of them at the same time?
David: Well, we're just setting the-- I have... I have a hundred of these.
Louis: I think we should spread this out a little bit, and possibly take a break right
now.
David: I have a hundred of these questions. OK, so Louis saying I guess the answer is
he would be OK, morally he would feel fine with stealing bread to feed his starving family.
Louis: Yes.
David: Is that what we have determined?
Louis: I would.
David: Very good.
Natan: But what's the difference between something being moral and Louis doing something?
David: Is there a difference... just because Louis does something, does that mean that
it's moral? That's a good question. And I think we're going to have to leave that one
for another day.
Louis: That one's pretty deep. I don't think we can answer that.
David: On today's bonus show, there is a new California bill related to Facebook that would
let parents access and edit their kids' profiles. We'll talk about that. There's also a new
test that claims it can really be a good estimator of how long one will live. The question is...
well, it's another... is it moral, is it ethical to start putting that information out there
when it may not be accurate? And plenty more. So we'll take a break, we'll come back. www.DavidPakman.com/membership,
make sure you're getting that bonus show. A lot's happening on there.
Announcer: The David Pakman Show at www.DavidPakman.com.
Transcript provided by Alex Wickersham and www.Subscriptorium.com. For transcripts, translations,
captions, and subtitles, or for more information, visit www.Subscriptorium.com, or contact Alex
at subscriptorium@gmail.com.