Mathematics used in ethics

@bigdoggproblem said
Wait, whoa. I very much judge someone worse for killing 30 people than ten.

Logic professors might refer to your statement as "begging the question".

I think I have a simple refutation to that.

What if the person who intended killing 30 is caught after his first murder?
Is he now somehow better than the man who killed ten?

@bigdoggproblem said
Well...that is not controversial.

Mathematics and logic are only a means from Point A to Point B - they do not specify where Point A[/i] is.

So, you have raised one objection, sure. I counter with Spock's saying from Star Trek II: "the needs of the many ... outweigh ... the needs of the few, or the one".

This is surely trivially obvious in the attempt of, say, an army soldier to dive on a grenade that threatens four other fellow soldiers, for example.

You picked your things of value, and what you value you placed on them, that is not the same thing has acknowledging life has value apart from what you get out of it. Instead of the needs of the many, what if I use, (what I want) for justification for value and devaluing something or someone as well. This merely highlights where do our values come from, if it is only from us, then we can justify anything we want to get and do what we want.

I take C.S. Lewis's argument, we are all aware of right and wrong we live in a universe where it matters, even if we try to suppress it and refuse to acknowledge it, which is why we feel the need to justify ourselves when we do things we know are wrong. It shows too when push comes to shove from time to time, we can do the right things, even if it goes against self-preservation. Someone who chooses their own values out of selfish desires alone has their foundation put as they say, firmly planted in thin air.

Also if you look at those movies you sited, you have to remember that the needs of the one, also meant more to the many as well as they were willing to lay down their lives for him, if love the scale numbers don't matter.