A Rather Vague Question On Vague Ethics

[salamangkero 0]

Suppose that you are subscribed to a gym, where you can exercise and use gym equipment during regular hours. Now, of course, gyms do have shower cubicles and, in these cubicles, there is a wall-mounted device comprised of two canisters with a spout each. By the labels written on each canister, it is known that one of these dispenses liquid soap while the other spurts out shampoo.Now, it so happened that you are an individual with keen senses and you have determined through scent, color, texture and consistency that the substances obtained from each canister are identical, that is, the soap and shampoo dispensers both give you the same substance. Suppose, too, that you have confirmed this notion with the gym manager who assures you that the fluids in both canisters are a special type of bath gel that can be used both as a soap and as a shampoo.Consider too that you always bring your own shampoo to the gym and, thus, have no reason to use the bath gel as a shampoo. This means that you only use the gel as a soap. Also consider the fact that people almost always use more soap than shampoo, that is, the "soap" canister empties faster than the "shampoo". Now the question is, when bathing, from which canister will you get your soap?If you take from the one labeled "soap", you deplete the "soap" faster and, depriving those without keen senses like you, ensure that they are unable to properly clean themselves, forcing them to wear a less hygienic and more odorous frame, lessening their chances of securing a mate thereby helping evolution progress through natural selection, that is, you are helping, in your own little way, to ensure that the human genetic pool has more people with keener senses.On the other hand, if you take from the one labeled "shampoo", you appease yourself in that you have followed a moral code that preaches not unnecessarily depriving others of resources. You have ensured that a lot more people will go out smelling fresher and cleaner. A lot of people would feel better, being clean and a lot more would also be a lot less pissed off since they wouldn't be assaulted with the warm, steamy smell of drying sweat.Well, yeah, I do think that way so I can't quite make up my mind. How about you guys? Any ideas?

[truefusion 3]

How about you guys? Any ideas?

The options you put forth i see as a waste of time. Why not just go around saying that you have researched things and have confirmed with authorities that they are both one and the same, while at the same time use either or since you already know they're the same, to your fellow class mates (or whoever they are)? Request that even the students themselves verify your statements. I see no moral dilemma in the entire thing you have prescribed, not even from a Darwinian point of view. If you are really looking for people to come out of the shower smelling as nice as you implied you would be, then i would have expected you to disclose the "secret" of the hidden soap-shampoo and enlighten everyone. I see this more as a personal dilemma on your side.
However, if you have already done that and are still (somewhat) disturbed by any smell of drying sweat, then i suppose you can bring a mask while observing from your Darwinian point of view the barbaric ways of man kind.

A lot of people would feel better, being clean and a lot more would also be a lot less pissed off since they wouldn't be assaulted with the warm, steamy smell of drying sweat.

I've been in a gym before: people go insane with deodorant. Maybe where you are it's different, but i was less worried about foul odor and more worried about being assaulted by the unwanted crossfires of deodorant.

[Misanthrope 0]

I appreciate the topic starter's irreverent and amusing insight on what most would perceive a mundane topic: the gym shower stall. I too find myself pondering such mysteries, though they usually involve scenarios of a more embarassing nature . In my sovereign mind the possibilities provide endless amusement sans the engineered trash madison avenue would fill my head with. Turn off the tv and tune in your head, I say. Why shouldn't our powers of awareness and philosophical insight extend to every aspect of our existence? We physically exist, after all, in the lower, mundane worlds, so it behooves us to approach these worlds from a state of full awareness, or at least as much we can muster. You've heard it before, but the unexamined life is simply not worth living.