Risk Taking

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is one where the aggregate
happiness is increased, thus increasing the moral good of the risk, an idea
which is based on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism. Finally, we might define a
morally good risk in a Kantian way by saying that the only acceptable risk is
one which is rationally thought out (Thomas, lecture).
Now that we have several definitions of acceptable risks, we may ask how
these definitions, which seem piecemeal and unrelated, can all combine to form
one definition of acceptable risk. The best way to do this is to examine the
two cases that lie before us and relate the definitions to them. In the process
of doing so, we will determine which risk is acceptable and which is not.

Risks in the example: the lottery and the AIDS cure

If the average person on the street were presented with the case of
spending one's life savings on a lottery ticket and losing or spending the same
sum on a false hunch regarding an AIDS cure, he or she would probably come ...

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