I was looking up thought experiments on t’Internet last night. Look I do these sorts of things, OK. I found this one which I’ve read before and thought I’d post it to see what you lovely blogging folk would say.
In an ancient land a ”semi-barbaric King” rules. He has an unusual form of trial justice for criminals. Place the accused in an arena with two exits. Behind one door was a beautiful woman and behind the other was a ravenous and slightly annoyed tiger. The accused is given the choice of picking only one door.
The door with the woman behind it leads to a declaration of innocence and as a reward he was required to marry the woman, regardless of previous marital status.
The door with the tiger behind it leads to a messy and noisy death as punishment for his crime. Clearly he is guilty if he makes such a bad decision.
One day the king found that his daughter, the princess, had taken a lover far beneath her station. The king, not being a progressive ruler, threw the man in prison and set a date for his trial in the arena. When the trial day arrives the man looked to the princess for some indication of which door to pick. The princess knows which door leads to the woman and which door leads to the tiger but is faced with a conundrum. If she indicated the door with the tiger, then the man she loved would be killed on the spot; however, if she indicated the door with the lady, her lover would be forced to marry another woman and even though he would be alive she would never be with him again. Finally she does indicate a door, which the suitor then opens.
The question is: Did the tiger come out of that door, or did the lady?
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pinkjellybaby said,
12 February 2008 at 11:41 am
the tiger, she’d rather he was dead than see him with another lady…..
Mas said,
12 February 2008 at 11:58 am
Goodness me!! The trick would be for the princess to indicate the lady; then to go down there herself and be the lady behind the door.
Of course, should the situation ever arise that me and pinky are lovers and we are thrown into this conundrum … I would pick the door opposite to the one she indicates…
Violet said,
12 February 2008 at 12:21 pm
Yeah I agree with mass, the lady should point out the door with the lady and run and stand behind it, but then on second thoughts it sounds absolutely stupid.
I think she should lead him to the door with the lady, at least she can try and win him back by using tricks and stuff…
hoverfrog said,
12 February 2008 at 1:43 pm
Pinky, the tiger, eh? Why do you think she’d rather he were dead than with someone else? Is it jealousy or spite or does she know that he would rather die than live without her?
Mas, there isn’t an option for her to join him. It’s death or separation. Mind you after Pinky’s speedy death sentence I’m steering clear of her as well. Lovely as she is.
Vi, you’d opt for separation in the hope that the future might bring you back together. How would you reconcile the years of marriage to another if you ever did meet again? What if he preferred death to separation and he turned against you for denying him that release? Having said that I’m with you. Death doesn’t leave any options so given the choice I’d choose the path of living apart.
Dom said,
12 February 2008 at 1:55 pm
She will indicate the door with the tiger. Being the kings daughter and having access to all parts of the palace she will have trained the tiger to obey her commands. They will both jump onto the tiger and ride off into the sunset (any guards being dispatched by the beast if they stand in the way) where they will live happily ever after until the Princess decides that her lover isn’t helping out enough with the chores, or isn’t paying her enough attention at which point he’ll start escaping to the pub and the whole relationship will slowly head south, probably ending in acrimonious divorce.
Mas said,
12 February 2008 at 5:02 pm
Now there you go a-changing the rules (rules? what rules?!) surely she could use the commonly used “disguise a colleague as yourself and you as them and no-one would be any the wiser” trick – as used in numerous books and films…?
Ah; heck – the truth of the matter is, if you (I) loved someone, you (I) would rather have them alive, well, and hopefully happy; even if situations meant they were unable to be with you (me). It would be preferable to know that, rather than having to live with the guilt of being instrumental to their demise.
Of course, the man could always open _both_ doors, push the lady in front of the tiger and run off into the sunset to meet up again with the princess.
drunkenspaniel said,
12 February 2008 at 11:55 pm
Neither. She whacked her dad over the head with a doorstop, nicked his keys, released her lover and they ran away together.
hoverfrog said,
13 February 2008 at 9:41 am
I think it says something about the people commenting here who, when given two options, reject both and look for a third. It’s a good something.
Sioned said,
13 February 2008 at 9:05 pm
Honestly, I would indicate the door with the woman behind it. If I loved someone I would rather see them alive and happy with someone else then injured in any way. Much like my ex-boyfriend – When we split up I found out he had met someone before we split. He did not do anything with her but they had started to hang around quite a bit. We were friends even after I found out. The truth of it was, he and I were not a good match and I thought enough of him to want to see him happy and with someone else then miserable with me. He married her, by the way and I could not be happier for him.
)
hoverfrog said,
13 February 2008 at 11:31 pm
Michelle, that’d because you’re lovely.
drunkenspaniel said,
14 February 2008 at 12:13 am
Frog, its in my nature to find the very best compromise and avoid confrontation where possible. When faced with yes or no as possible answers, I will always want to say ‘well, it depends’. I’m not good with multi-choice papers.
Maybe thats why I work in Human Resources. I’m always working round the rules….
cha0tic said,
15 February 2008 at 4:58 pm
Semi Barbaric? What’s Semi barbaric?
We can’t know the answer. Much like Drunkenspaniel I’m in the “it depends” camp. We don’t have enough information on the character of the Princess to predict/guess what she would do.
cha0tic said,
18 February 2008 at 2:26 pm
I have thought some more.
It doesn’t matter which door she chooses. Her lover his lost to her either way. She may as well toss a coin to pick the door and then get on with her life.
Nevets92993 said,
31 March 2008 at 7:17 am
I believe that the princess choose to tell the man to pick the door with the beautiful woman behind it so that she will not have to watch her lover die before her eyes. The first reason why I believe that she would do this was because of sadness. Watching someone die that she loves and cares for and not being able to do anything about it would be a horrible experience, even if she is semi barbaric I still believe that she would not have told him to choose the door with the lion. Another reason why I believe that she wouldn’t tell him to pick the door with the lion would be because of love. Love, is a strong bond, and that is why I believe even if he was forced to marry someone else, the princess would know that he will always lover he no matter what. Last reason why I believe that the princess would tell him to choose the door with the woman would be because of happiness. If I were this princess I would rather see my lover with another person, and be happy, other than being in the stomach of a hungry lion, and being dead. That is why I believe the princess would have chosen the door with the beautiful woman behind it.
Scott said,
6 May 2008 at 9:52 pm
It is obviously the Princess will choose death for her lover. There is supporting evidence that the Princess liked her lover because he was “handsome and brave”. Also, when the crowd first saw the Princess’s suitor, they believed the man was “Tall and fair, his entrance was greeted with a low hum of admiration…” Those quotes from the text give support that he was the Princess’s lover merely because of his physical attributes.
The Princess also hated the thought that she would lose her lover to someone of lower station. The Princess hated that woman with all her heart; which shows that the Princess would be inclined to bring death to her lover rather than losing him to a “rival”. The text also shows that the Princess was “semibarbaric”.
I don’t have much time to say what I want to say since I urgently have to go now. Maybe i’ll finish this up with another comment next time.
I read this story at school and I didn’t read this one above so the text may be different.
lucy said,
30 May 2008 at 2:57 am
The end of the story has nothing to do with the statement, “if i was the princess” because one isn’t the princess. One has to look at what personality traits that were given to the character in the story, then think what the possible ending could be. For example, if a morbid-being thought of themselves as the princess, they might tell him to pick the door with the tiger. In hopes of a gory show-down, despite the love connection they have. This is obviously not a logical reason the princess would pick the door with the tiger. Just something else to think about.
karl said,
23 March 2009 at 1:08 pm
rather the princess should tell the truth to his father about it ……i guess