Risk and Self-Command-

However, we should not be so concerned with the future that we stifle

the present. The question becomes what balance should we strike

between self-command and risks? What kinds of risks are acceptable or

unacceptable? In this essay, we will use two examples of risks to show

the distinction between the two and arrive at a conclusion as to the

balance one should have between risk and self command. The first

example we will use is of a person who spends his life savings on a

lottery ticket and does not win the lottery. The second is of a person

who spends his life savings on a hunch regarding a cure for AIDS, a

hunch that is false. Before we make this distinction, however, it is

necessary to define the terms acceptable and unacceptable risks.

There are several ways in which one could define which risks

are acceptable. One could say, for example, that the only acceptable

risk is one for which the odds of success are greater than the odds of

failure. Another definition of acceptable risk might be a risk that

does not harm one's future. We might also say that the only acceptable

AIDS, it would greatly increase the general happiness. Masses of

show that, regardless of the greater chance of failure, the attempt at

lottery. This case, although quite valid, is not very interesting. In

winning the lottery than finding a cure for AIDS. Yet, I will still

the one we will consider in depth here, is the case in which one has

would follow, then, that the odds of finding a cure for AIDS would be

an AIDS cure, he or she would probably come up with several answers.

all combine to form one definition of acceptable risk. The best way to

Now that we have several definitions of acceptable risks, we

Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism. Finally, we might define a morally good

some of them do not offer guarantees (indeed, many are experimental)

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