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Utility

In: Religion Topics

Submitted By roblim
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In the movie “Crimson Tide” the two main characters, the Executive Officer and the Captain, both possess ignorance on what should be the right thing to do for SS Alabama. The captain possesses invincible ignorance and the executive officer possesses vincible ignorance which afterwards shifted to invincible ignorance.
The captain’s duty as the chief of SS Alabama is to carry out whatever mission given to him by the command post. He should carry out his mission at all cost even if he needs to make his subordinate undergo very strict measures. As the chief of SS Alabama, everyone depends on him that he shouldn’t perform mistakes in delivering protocols for if he committed a mistake he might risk the lives of the crew of the submarine. Because of this, the captain becomes ignorant of what is the proper thing to do. He has always remained true to his duty as the chief of the submarine which blinded him of the truth. His ignorance is invincible because his doings are based on his responsibility as the captain. He need to execute every protocol to him because it is his duty to do so, it will be hard for him to dispel this because there are lives that would be risked if he failed to accomplish his duty. He also need to response quickly on protocols for the sake of Alabama, he is not aware that he needed enlightenment.
On the other hand Executive Officer possesses vincible ignorance. His duty was to repeat the duty of the captain in order to concur the protocols. At the movie he seemed to be having some doubts if he should concur some of the protocols and decision of the captain which shows that his forming some guilt on doing such. His ignorance was easy to dispel if he just don’t repeat the command and hold on to what he think is right since there are ways that can dispel it like following the military provisions. His efforts on dispelling it was not sufficient.The executive officer later on shifted his ignorance to invincible when an uncut EAM were sent to them. After he assumed the power of the captain by using provisions ( which dispelled his vincible ignorance on what is the best for the submarine) he is then now duty to decide what should be done during the attacks of Russia. On this scene he has no way of obtaining the knowledge he ought to have because the message was cut and the transmitter was broken. He did even ask to fix the transmitter but then it will take time to finish fixing it. He might have been wrong on deciding not to launch missiles but it is excusable since the message was cut-off. The ignorance was hard to dispel because of these reasons so his actions which destroy the voluntariness of the act.
Another issue in this topic is the rightness of closing the hatch despite the fact that there are men that might get drowned on the lower part of the underwater craft. Closing the hatch modified the voluntariness of the act of the ex-o. The Ex-O intended to prevent the flood and the death of the three men was not part of his intention. The means of this act is saving the SS Alabama by closing the hatch, the evil effect which is the death of the three crew was just another effect. The Ex-O has sufficient reason in closing the hatch since he needed to prevent the flooding of the submarine which might kill the rest of them. He is honest with his intention since his intention was saving the submarine from flooding and he has no dishonest reason of letting the three men die. It is an antecedent concupiscence since the evil effect was not the cause of the good effect in this situation. He acted because of the fear of letting the rest of the crew died if the flood continues; the act might not be done if flooding did not occur which make him less responsible.
The actions of the captain when he attempted to kill everyone in the room in order to get the officer fire the missile are justifiable by utilitarianism. He wanted to launch the missile because it will produce the most utility for everyone. The intensity of the pleasure is high while the pain is low. The duration of pleasure will last long since it will be all beneficial for all of them after missiles are launched. The certainty of the act is that it will surely make the officer launch the missile since lives were threatened and the pleasure will be followed. The propinquity of pleasure will be experience quickly since the officer will easily launch the missile for the fear of the death of the other officer. The probability that the pleasure will lead to other pleasure is positive since he made the officer launch the missile, the missile will be launched and it will save all of them. There is purity of the act since it won’t be followed by pain for no one will get hurt if the officer will launch the missile. The act extends to everyone on the SS Alabama since everyone will be saved if the missile will be launched. His action of threatening everyone is justifiable by utilitarianism since the ends is for the greater good of everybody on the submarine.

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