An elderly woman living alone in poor circumstances with few friends or relatives is dying, and you, her friend, are at her bedside. She draws your attention to a small case under her bed, which contains some momentous along with the money she has managed to save over the years, despite her apparent poverty. She asks you to take the case and to promise to deliver its contents, after she dies, to her nephew living in another state. Moved by her plight and by your affection for her, you promise to do as she requests. After a tearful goodbye, you take the case and leave. A few weeks later the old woman dies, and when you open the case, you discover that it contains $500,000 dollars. No one else knows about the money, or the promise you made. You learn that the nephew is a compulsive gambler and has a drug addiction. What would Kant say you should do? What would John Stuart Mill say you should do? What would you do? Why?

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Both Immanuel Kant and John Stuart Mill have different ethical philosophies that can be applied to this situation and your own decision might be influ... View the full answer