[Spear]

I would probably just leave the baby be ,if not It might effect the future in a worse manner . If i didn't care about the future i would just let the baby grow up and tutor/guide it so it doesn't go that path . Killing it would just be too easy in the grand scheme of things .

[KraMer]

definedly no, though it would be tempting to leave a note next to him "make sure he passes the art scholarship examn"

[NeedsNewNameNow]

I was in my philosophy class last semester and my professor brought up a discussion on the following scenario:

You stumble across a time machine. Curious, you step in it and press the big red button. All of a sudden, you end up in a room with a crib. A sign on the crib reads: ADOLF HITLER. You walk over to the crib and, sure enough, little baby Hitler is looking up at you. There is a sharp knife on a nearby end table. You have 5 minutes alone with the baby until the time machine transports you back to the future. What do you do?

Obviously, the details are sketchy. How do you know it's the really Hitler? What if I didn't want to press the button? etc. But assuming the scenario unfolded exactly as described, what would you do and why?

I was extremely surprised to find that I was one of the few people in my class who wouldn't kill the baby. I would simply act like a tourist and take pictures for future historical documentation purposes and personal memory construction. Personally, I saw no point in vigilante justice and "preventing" the holocaust. I opted for the rational that it was simply an act of population control and that somebody, if not grownup Hitler, would come along with an equally sociopathic plot anyway. Besides, I wasn't about to mess with history or lower myself to Hitler's future level and partake in murder. As you can see, I'm also not a fan of capital punishment. I thought maybe this or simply my INTJness might justify my hypothetical actions. 95% of the class would have killed the baby, 4% would have tried to "nurture" him (they argued that all he needed was love and he wouldn't have felt the need to be a serial killer in the first place...which I found totally irrational ), and 1% would have done nothing...any thoughts?

any small thing could have unpredictable effects on the timeline, I'd think it best to not intervene
-but-
suppose you stopped the rise of Hitler, the holocaust and everything. Then in the new timeline you meet baby Hitler, and have no incentive to do anything to stop him.. doesn't that mean history reverts? Or some temporal paradox?

[kikidmonkey]

If i killed baby hitler, then he wouldn't have killed all those jews, so i wouldnt know I would have to kill baby hitler.

PIME TARADOX!

[Humoriarty]

If i killed baby hitler, then he wouldn't have killed all those jews, so i wouldnt know I would have to kill baby hitler.

PIME TARADOX!

Exactly, killing the child results in paradox, ergo the child cannot be killed...

Plus, if enough people go back in time and kill enough children they are convinced are hitler, isn't that mass murder too? Oh think of the feewings!

Think of the children!!

Taking the child back to this time results in paradox and potentially IF time revolves round the individual, results in WW2 occurring in 40 odd years from now... Given the advances in weaponry it would be absolutely crazy to bring baby adolf back to this time as well... The planet may not survive.. Would you actually take that risk?

So the only logical outcome is to leave history be, what is past is past.

Move on from hitler.

Will this debate be had in the future with a baby George bush?

[rosetea]

well i would have taken the babay and given it to anunnary or a nearby church in my own time. no baby killed, and hitler was smart maybe he could contribute somethn good to this world if he didnt have a horrible childhood.

[Xiong Mao]

What's the point of a philosophical experiment if you can only say yay or nay?

These kinds of things are weak and encourage mindless answers. I don't see the value in knowing if Jane, John, or Bob would kill an infant if they thought he would grow up to be a killer by proxy.

It was an intro to the chapter on Ethics...obviously not my favorite topic, especially in a classroom of Fs.

[Xiong Mao]

It's nice to see that most of you would not kill him. Now that 1% seems a lot bigger. (I'm not alone!...except in a class of Fs )

[Dashing]

Take him back with me to 2012. He becomes a member of ZZ Top. ????? Profit!!!

[Humoriarty]

well i would have taken the babay and given it to anunnary or a nearby church in my own time. no baby killed, and hitler was smart maybe he could contribute somethn good to this world if he didnt have a horrible childhood.

Have you spent much time growing up in a convent?