question from a book, but not answered (56)

I skirted the issue in my first response but my initial reaction maybe not well thought out but instinctive would be yes he should kill the other to protect his people...its neither hero or coward just survival and protecting one's own loved ones. It goes beyond rationalising I think.

Sometimes, someone has to sacrifice in order to be rewarded. His world dies... good points...
On the other hands, to save my people-I will have to fight to death.

skirting the question again i see, sneeky

he refused to kill, condeming his world to death.
coward or hero?
remember he gave not only his world but his own life for his beliefs

Again if I was in that situation, I might have to follow my instinct. I cannot let anyone take away my world and destroy it.
This reminds me of the Movie "The Patriot".

yes an altruistic and brave act he will be rewarded on the other man's planet by homage and statue building and be lauded a hero but his own people in their dying agonies may curse his decision, the lily-livered goody two shoes!

This could be interpreted as a question about personal morality, or virtue. On the one hand, by refusing to fight, his world is lost. On the other hand, by fighting, he guarantees the destruction of one world - his, if he loses, or the other one, if he wins.

The bottom line is this: no matter what choice he makes, people will die. The only choice he really has is this: does he become a murderer or not? If he kills the other man, he does, and yet gains nothing from it. So he can decide to do the virtuous thing and refuse to fight. He must also know that by making this decision, he will bring the hatred and anger of his own world upon himself, because he is in effect sacrificing them. So he will die, and most certainly not a hero in his people's world, but at least he will have remained true to himself. The only way to become virtuous is to practice virtue, and doing the right thing is seldom the same as doing the easy thing.

I was thinking about the same thing that he might be the horo for the living planet but to his people, he'd be condemned and cursed.

it is a question of personal morality,and yet you didnt answer the question,as didnt the others, hero or coward and why, in your opinion

By not fighting, he is making a decision that will gain him only opprobrium from his own people. By fighting, regardless of the outcome, he would have been lauded as a hero, because even if he didn't win, he would have been perceived as trying.

Like I said, virtue is never easy. How much easier to make yourself popular, even if you hate how you do it? Much, much more difficult to be true to yourself in the face of much opposition - how many of us are that strong?

Hero. then.

hurrah! well argued munchskin. What a lonely decision to make.To have that clarity of thought with so much at stake is virtuous in itself. At least he wouldnt have to live with the decision, and the death of a planet for the remander of his living days.Still if it was me I would fight the other I think virtuous or not..