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The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 10:36 pm
by BurtReynolds
Please answer to the best of your ability. You will be graded.
You see a runaway trolley moving toward five tied-up (or otherwise incapacitated) people lying on the tracks. You are standing next to a lever that controls a switch. If you pull the lever, the trolley will be redirected onto a side track, and the five people on the main track will be saved. However, there is a single person lying on the side track. You have two options:
1. Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track.
2. Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.
Which is the more ethical option?
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 10:52 pm
by wease
Let Ted Danson decide.
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:00 pm
by epilogue
wease wrote:Let Ted Danson decide.
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:01 pm
by BurtReynolds
wease wrote:Let Ted Danson decide.
F+
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:15 pm
by Green Habit
I hate these types of fabricated dilemmas. This is the kind of thing that gets me itching to rant about the problems with the "effective altruism" movement.
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:16 pm
by Strat
how fast is the trolley going? do I have enough time to get the one person of the track after pulling the lever?
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:21 pm
by BurtReynolds
Strat wrote:how fast is the trolley going? do I have enough time to get the one person of the track after pulling the lever?
No.
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:31 pm
by Strat
Well the answer is then remove my hand from the lever, and shoot any witnesses on site.
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:40 pm
by BurtReynolds
B-
I wrestle with this one a lot
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Fri March 01, 2019 11:58 pm
by McParadigm
Extract iPhone from left front pocket
Open camera
No not photos I want camera
Switch to video
Not fucking pano
Video
Hit recor- ahh fuck missed it
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:15 am
by LetMeSleep
McParadigm wrote:Extract iPhone from left front pocket
Open camera
No not photos I want camera
Switch to video
Not fucking pano
Video
Hit recor- ahh fuck missed it
Gen X post. A millennial would have his/her/their/its/whatever shit together.
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:23 am
by JuanHamm
So what's the argument for letting the four people die? Just that you aren't making a conscious decision to kill them?
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:26 am
by McParadigm
JuanHamm wrote:So what's the argument for letting the four people die? Just that you aren't making a conscious decision to kill them?
I believe they are all immigrants
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:29 am
by JuanHamm
McParadigm wrote:JuanHamm wrote:So what's the argument for letting the four people die? Just that you aren't making a conscious decision to kill them?
I believe they are all immigrants
I still need more information. What if they're European immigrants? Or Canadian?
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:32 am
by LoathedVermin72
Let the train kill the five, then pull the lever so the next train kills the other one.
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:36 am
by BurtReynolds
JuanHamm wrote:So what's the argument for letting the four people die? Just that you aren't making a conscious decision to kill them?
I think the Transplant problem makes it trickier:
Here is an alternative case, due to Judith Jarvis Thomson,[3] containing similar numbers and results, but without a trolley:
A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor. Do you support the morality of the doctor to kill that tourist and provide his healthy organs to those five dying persons and save their lives?
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:37 am
by LoathedVermin72
BurtReynolds wrote:JuanHamm wrote:So what's the argument for letting the four people die? Just that you aren't making a conscious decision to kill them?
I think the Transplant problem makes it trickier:
Here is an alternative case, due to Judith Jarvis Thomson,[3] containing similar numbers and results, but without a trolley:
A brilliant transplant surgeon has five patients, each in need of a different organ, each of whom will die without that organ. Unfortunately, there are no organs available to perform any of these five transplant operations. A healthy young traveler, just passing through the city the doctor works in, comes in for a routine checkup. In the course of doing the checkup, the doctor discovers that his organs are compatible with all five of his dying patients. Suppose further that if the young man were to disappear, no one would suspect the doctor. Do you support the morality of the doctor to kill that tourist and provide his healthy organs to those five dying persons and save their lives?
This is a very different situation
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:38 am
by BurtReynolds
or is it?
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:39 am
by LoathedVermin72
Yep
Re: The Trolley Problem
Posted: Sat March 02, 2019 12:40 am
by BurtReynolds
is it really though?