NPR: Weekend All Things ConsideredDEBBIE ELLIOTT, host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Debbie Elliott.
We've all been there, stuck on a crowded subway train when the doors just won't close because of people trying to force their way onto the train at the last minute. This week's letter to The Ethicist comes from Chris Castiglione(ph), who recently moved from New York City to Osaka, Japan, both places known for extreme subway crowds.
Hello, Chris.
Mr. CHRIS CASTIGLIONE (Caller): Hello.
ELLIOTT: And we have New York Times Magazine ethicist Randy Cohen with us, too, a man who knows a thing or two about New York subways.
Hi, Randy.
Mr. RANDY COHEN (The New York Times Magazine): Hi, Debbie. I took the subway to the studios.
ELLIOTT: Chris, why don't tell us what's troubling you?
Mr. CASTIGLIONE: Well, my girlfriend and I have been arguing for about a little while now about if it's right or wrong to force open the doors when the subway is closing. We've had this happen a few times. I don't like to do it because I think maybe it's kind of wrong 'cause there's so many people that you're inconveniencing on their way to work or wherever they're going. But she thinks that really doesn't matter. It's only maybe two seconds, and it's more important if you're on your way to work yourself to just take care of it.
ELLIOTT: Subway trains in Japan are packed. I'm not so sure I'd want to try and hold the doors open. Has your girlfriend actually tried it?
Mr. CASTIGLIONE: You know, we haven't tried it here, especially because of the cultural difference. I don't want to really try to stick out too much, you know.
ELLIOTT: Randy, what's your take on the situation?
Mr. COHEN: My take is that usually when the words `force open' appear in a question, that's a good guideline that you're doing something ethically dubious. In fact, the word `force' in general--that should raise a red flag. I'm with Chris on this one; that his girlfriend is buying her convenience at other people's expense, and I'm not so sure it's ethically significant that it's only a small expense. She seems to be arguing that it's OK to harm people if you only harm them a little. So I guess she would think it would be wrong for me to break into her apartment and steal all her furniture. But if I come once a week and just steal, like, you know, one chair I guess that would be OK with her because it's only a small harm. I don't think so. I don't think so. And if she really wants to compute the harm, she should multiply those two seconds times hundreds on the No. 6 train here in New York times thousands. She's doing a tiny harm to many, many people, and that adds up to something I think consequential.
And it fails another ethical test. There's another guideline you can use, which is the categorical imperative. And that's the--that's Kant's idea about, `Well, what if everyone were to do what I do?' `If you act as if you're ruling for the entire world,' was the way Kant put it. So if dozens of people did this at every stop, the transit system would be thrown into disarray, and that's not right. That's not right. You can't buy your well-being at my expense.
ELLIOTT: Chris...
Mr. CASTIGLIONE: Yes?
ELLIOTT: ...do you think your girlfriend will abide by Randy's advice?
Mr. CASTIGLIONE: I think she might abide by the advice, but she'll kill me if I don't mention in situations when it's an emergency maybe. I'm not sure when that is, if it's late for work or something else, maybe someone died. But if it's an emergency, is there maybe some situation when I should hold the door for her?
Mr. COHEN: Yes, absolutely. I think she's right about that, although late to work--I don't know if I count that as an emergency. But yeah, sure, there are exceptions. I would say--and it needn't even be an emergency, that here in New York, very late at night, there's sometimes a really, really long wait for the train, and there are also fewer people on the train. So what you gain by doing it to avoid this endless wait so late at night, and maybe not entirely safe to be alone on the platform late at night, and there are very few passengers to inconvenience. So late at night, I might think, `OK, maybe.'
And the other situation may be more like an emergency--and this is something that's never actually happened to me, but I've seen it in movies; it seems to happen a lot. If your girlfriend's being chased by a killer robot, then I think you can hold the door to get her on the train then.
(Laughter)
Mr. CASTIGLIONE: Yeah, all the time.
Mr. COHEN: Yeah.
ELLIOTT: So, Chris, did you win this argument?
Mr. COHEN: Yeah, he did.
Mr. CASTIGLIONE: I don't know. I guess when she wakes up, we'll have to talk about it and see what happens. Thank you. Thank you. I heard what I wanted to hear.
ELLIOTT: But you sound like you might be a little nervous about telling her that.
(Laughter)
Mr. COHEN: Give her Debbie's number.
Mr. CASTIGLIONE: Oh, yeah, yeah.
Mr. COHEN: Debbie will break it to her personally.
ELLIOTT: Chris Castiglione joined us from Osaka, Japan. Thanks for your letter. And we have a postscript to our discussion of subway etiquette. Last week the Washington, DC, Metro system, the nation's second-busiest subway, announced a measure to get passengers into trains more quickly. Instead of the familiar chimes and female voice warning `Doors closing,' Washingtonians will now hear a stern command from a man, `The doors are closing now. Please step back.' We'll see whether Metro man scares off latecomers rushing to pry the doors open.
2 comments:
First of all, I apologize if a discussion has already started on this topic, but for some reason I can't see any comments on any blog posts, so I'm going to respond to the article as though I am the first to do so (even if I am not).
After reading the article, I have to say that I am a little bit confused about the Categorical Imperative. According to Cohen, if you apply Kant’s Categorical Imperative to forcing the door open, then this behaviour is immoral. But he also says that you can have exceptions to that rule, such as taking the subway late at night, or in the case of an emergency. My concern is that I thought that the Categorical Imperative is something you can’t bend at all-so that even during an emergency or during a less crowded period, one would still not be able to force the door open. Is this the case, or am I misunderstanding it?
these people have too much time on their hands...but hey esmahan in response, its kind of like the idea that you should keep your promise but what if you promised to kill someone? thats when you have to look at the maxim behind what you're doing, so in an emergency your maxim would be different then if you are just running late for work or dont want to wait for the next train. im not sure if by kants ideas you could force the door open if the subway was simply empty, i guess kant would say you were amazingly moral if you didnt because you probably had so many reasons to want to do it!
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