Gardening on the Moon ( GOTM )

Written by Jeff

Why are talk shows so popular? Phil Donahue had quite a run. Oprah and Dr. Phil have likely amassed an even greater audience. One of the draws of this type of show involves the audience in the “what if” scenario. Would I share my lottery millions with ne’er do well siblings? What if I found a large diamond ring on the pavement? Would I tell my best friend if I learned that her spouse was having an affair?

That is why I like to listen to Randy Cohen, the Ethicist. Mr. Cohen writes a column for the New York Times in which he discusses the ethics behind various situations readers send to him. Some of the time they are large issues and often they are less than earth shattering, but interesting nevertheless. These columns are also presented as podcasts for the listening public. There are generally two or three ethics problems posed on each of the podcasts.

To give you an idea, here is an example of a problem that was sent to the Ethicist and highlighted on his show or in his column August 3, 2008. I quote and paraphrase as follows:

“A student is taking a course at a major business program and the professor has assigned a group project that will account for a major part of the grade. One member of the group has taken an ‘egregious free ride’ and hasn’t pulled his own weight. The work has already been submitted so there wouldn’t be any direct benefit for the members of the group by telling the professor about this situation. Should the freeloader be ratted out?”

And the answer by Mr. Cohen – “Rat away, right away.” (in other words, tell the professor)

The reasoning behind the answer as explained on the podcast and once again I have taken the liberties of paraphrasing:

• This shouldn’t be done to punish the student, but rather to give the professor all the details about how the project was completed.
• The professor can respond to such problems only if he/she knows about them.
• The professor should have been apprised of this when the problem was first recognized and perhaps there were contingency plans for dealing with such an occurrence.

Update: The student’s behavior was not disclosed to the professor.

As you will note from the paraphrased transcript above, there are several parts to each podcast:

• The problem statement
• The Answer
• The reason for the answer
• Other considerations

When I was commuting two hours to and from work each day, I would save several episodes and listen to them in the car during part of the ride. This was my form of entertainment. These are often very interesting and challenging problems and I enjoyed listening to them to consider what my advice would be and how it would differ from that of Mr. Cohen. Of course, I am not an ethicist and I think that is the point. How do common folks like us differ from Mr. Cohen in their reasoning?

NOTE: Mr. Cohen is often quite humorous and clever with his retorts. I find his philosophizing (if that is a word) quite entertaining and I think you will too.

Even more intriguing than determining the correct answer is to determine the reasoning that Mr. Cohen will use to validate his answer. I often agree with the answer to the ethics question, but not necessarily to the reason behind the answer and some of the time, I don’t agree with the response at all. I always thought this had the potential to make an interesting intellectual parlor game if you have a group of friends who would enjoy such entertainment.

Click Here for The Ethicist Website

Click Here for the The Ethicist Game Part II

Gardening on the Moon, www.gardeningonthemoon.com, originally published this post