#💡 #🟠 # Sartre's Student ![[calendar-plus.svg]] <small>Nov 20, 2021</small> | ![[calendar-clock.svg]] <small>Jan 03, 2023</small> 🏷️ [[ethics]] Classic example of [[obligation dilemmas|obligation dilemma]]. Anecdote of a [[moral dilemmas|moral dilemma]] used by [[Sartre]] to illustrate the limits of making decisions based on defined moral code and the falsity of blaming "passions" for people's actions. - A French student's brother was killed in 1940 by the Germans, but his father nonetheless later abandoned the family to collaborate with the Germans. The student had to choose between staying in France with his mother, who "found her only comfort in him," and leaving to fight with the Free French against the German occupation. After realizing he was caught between [[moral principles]] - family and nation, or the obligation to care for his mother and the obligation to avenge his brother's death - he came to Sartre for advice. The philosopher told his student that there was no correct or incorrect decision. Neither moral codes nor the strength of his affections for one or the other party could determine what to do; rather the student had to "invent" his own solution to the problem. ## Sources [[What are Moral Dilemmas - PHILO-notes]]