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Tuesday, March 16, 2004
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TEACHING TODAY
Third in a series highlighting notable professors in the United States and abroad. Louis Althusser Memorial Professor University of Manchester After poisoning his wife and various townspeople - none fatally, though that was the intention - Professor Paul Agutter went to prison in Scotland for seven years of a twelve year attempted murder sentence. Now free, he teaches ethics at the University of Manchester [BBC online, March 10: "Poisoner Employed as Ethics Tutor"]. Like University Diaries' last featured professor, Mark Belnick of Cornell (scroll down), today's lecturer offers students a perspective that one might call, after Joni Mitchell, both sides now. There's nothing theoretical about Agutter's takes on good and evil. He's been there. "Now then, let's see, Mr. Lancaster, in the third row. Let us say that you have fallen out of love with your wife and in love with another woman. You are a trained biochemist and you understand how poisons work. What do you do?" "Er...file for divorce?" "In what way would that make use of your specialized knowledge in dangerous substances?" "Um, in no way. But I don't see why..." "Miss Silverstone?" "Well, if I were to decide to kill her rather than divorce her - which I guess means I have to assume either that I dislike my wife very much or that she refuses to grant me a divorce or something - I would be attracted to a substance which had no taste and no color and which could be put..." "In her gin and tonics. Yes. Let us say that you are aware that every night the lush - that is, your wife, drinks a lot of gin and tonics. What would a plausible poison be, Mr. Stevens?" "Atropine, I think. She wouldn't notice a thing." "Bingo! Now can we think of any reason why we might not want to do this thing? Miss. Evans?" "Well, if anyone knew there was tension between my wife and me, and my wife mysteriously died, suspicion might be directed at me." "And so... Mr. Lindsay?" "So...I guess I'd try to deflect suspicion by poisoning other people in the vicinity, so that police would assume some tainted food was responsible." "Yes. For instance, you might take a few bottles of tonic to which you've added atropine to the local grocery and let them get bought and imbibed." "Excuse me, Professor Agutter?" "Yes, Miss Collison." "You actually did all of this. It was and is incredibly evil. I do not understand why you received only a twelve year sentence, of which you served only seven." "I'm working through this, Miss Collison. I'm working through it. You and your fellow students are helping me clarify the moral basis of my behavior in this particular set of activities. It is very hurtful to me that you feel free to use such hateful and judgmental language. I am doing my best. I shared a cell for awhile with a man who incinerated his entire family. We are all guilty of something." |