The immediate story that came to mind was from fall 2021 when a woman on a train was assaulted in an incident that lasted for 8 minutes. None of the bystanders intervened and some even videoed the event. Eventually a train employee arrived and intervened, calling 911. An ethical subjectivist would justify the moral indifference of the bystanders by saying that it was a matter of their personal opinions and that to them, that man assaulting someone wasnt morally wrong. Its not important whether the assailants actions were wrong; to the bystanders it didnt matter. For the train employee in his opinion what the assailant was doing was wrong and it was right for him to intervene.
I absolutely disagree! Every part of this story is horrible up until the train employee finally intervened. I can understand not intervening because of fear of the attacker or your own physical abilities or any number of other reasons, but for an ethical subjectivist to not intervene because of their own isolated inner feels is unthinkable.
This is the original article I read about this event: https://www.nytimes.com/2
Post #2
From: W
The example I found was what was a violent attack in New York City of an older woman of Asian decent just over a year ago. The two doormen working in a building right where it happened not only saw it but closed the door to the building and locked it. They claimed they did so because they thought the man had a knife. Another bystander in the area did in fact come to the rescue to fend off the assailant. As far as the two doormen, clearly an ethical subjectivist would easily say their decision to close the door and protect themselves was the right thing to do from their prospective. If they feel their own health, safety, job, etc is more important than the woman’s life then they are right.
I disagree with that course of action. Even if they felt physically unable to stop the altercation they should have attempted something to distract or stop the deranged individual from assaulting the woman. I personally feel we have a moral obligation to attempt to do something when we see another human in a dire situation and not turn a blind eye.
Daughter: Bystander Disrupted Attack on Filipino American Woman in NYC
