Theory talk:Arthur Petrelli

Utilitarianism

"'Dallas' has an extremely utilitarian philosophy, even willing to kill a young girl to win the war. Most of the antagonists of Heroes appear to use the same modus operandi: Adam Monroe wanted to punish the world for its sins, and Linderman wanted to unite the world by killing .07% of its population."

"Utilitarianism" is defined by maximizing utility, or creating the best world for the most people. While it can be argued that killing .07% of the world's population to improve the world for the remaining 99.93% is consistent with utilitarianism, killing 93% of the Earth's population to punish them is not.--Hardvice (talk) 17:08, 15 December 2007 (EST)

• I was under the impression that Adam wanted to get the world to stop committing its evils by punishing it. He was playing God. --LightSpectra 17:12, 15 December 2007 (EST)
  • "Playing God" =/= "utilitarianism". It's inaccurate to describe all of these character's motivations as "utilitarian". Linderman, possibly. Petrelli, to a lesser extent--he's Machiavellian, but there's no reason to believe he's doing so to maximize utility. Monroe, not in the slightest.--Hardvice (talk) 18:42, 15 December 2007 (EST)
    • The question is: was Adam misanthropic, or did he generally believe the same thing Linderman did, that mass destruction leads to a better world for the survivors? Again, I get the impression that it was the latter: "God had the right idea in flooding the world." -- LightSpectra 18:59, 15 December 2007 (EST)