Social and Political and Ethics: The Match Girl

Hi friends!

Let consider a very, a very cold child.

This matters both Social and Political philosophy and to, obviously, Ethics. So closely are they related.

In this story by Hans Christian Andersen, retold by me in a way more consistent with our current technology but not altered in any content, we address a basic ethical moment. When we walk on by. The story has five important features,

1. The child is abandoned in the sense there is little to eat.
2. The child is neglected as she tries to sell matches she is ordered to sell by her family.
3. In all that darkness and all that cold, the child starts lighting the matches she was sent by her abusive/desperate parents to sell.
4. The child experiences powerful revelations.
5. Then we also find out the consequences.

What should we do about the child? Ethically, Morally, (these terms mean the same) speaking. If anything? What is it to leave her to her brick wall?

A very old, odd, but in our context appropriate song,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2l1et1GQik

Cheers~

Dr. Lee Basham