Theory vs Practice

2025-07-16

I listen to a bunch of podcasts and one of them talks about morality and philosophy and I encountered this thought experiment by Peter Singer:

I ask them to imagine that their route to the university takes them past a shallow pond. One morning, I say to them, you notice a child has fallen in and appears to be drowning. To wade in and pull the child out would be easy but it will mean that you get your clothes wet and muddy, and by the time you go home and change you will have missed your first class. I then ask the students: do you have any obligation to rescue the child?

And to me this really hypothetical scenario makes sense, I would rescue the child, I do feel we have some moral obligation to our fellow humans. I remember at the end of ‘Groundhogs Day’ with Bill Murray that when he is towards the end of his infinite loops he is running around and rescuing children and adults alike.

But I also don’t think that life is like this or that simple sadly, I have never encountered a single solo drowning child. I have encountered many people asking for money but what are their intentions? Will they use money to buy drugs? etc. If I give to an institution how do I know the institution is doing the ‘right’ thing with my money?

While being in India I have encountered some of the poorest looking people, children begging for money on the street. Can I just hand them some money? Will it improve their lives? Will they actually be able to use it or does an adult take it from them?

I remember once a shabby looking many was outside of a coffee shop asking people for coffee, I agreed to buy him one, and then when I got outside to give him his coffee he was smoking a cigarette. He clearly did not care for his health and had enough money to buy cigarettes which was a bummer for me.

In addition I get a ton of scam texts and calls, I assume trying to get money from me, and so I have to constantly be on guard for those types of scams. I think there are whole industries built on scamming people.

So I feel that life isn’t like this thought experiment sadly. I guess if I wanted to think about life in terms of shallow ponds I would say:

As you walk to university there are a ton of shallow ponds you pass every day with people calling out for help. A very few of these shallow ponds contain drowning children, a few contain people who are trying to take your money and buy drugs, and most of the shallow ponds contain someone in between. But you dont have the time to visit every pond and talk to every person.

My current philosophy is to give to a few organizations that I trust, and if I see someone on the street that I think I could help I will try. Thanks for reading.

-Gary