[lit-ideas] Re: On being called a Lyre [dilemmas]

Robert: 'A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are 5 people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you can flip a switch which will lead the trolley down a different track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch?
These dilemmas always seem to presuppose facts not in evidence for persons living outside of thought experiments. (This is one. The Baby or the Botticelli is another.)
How would a moralist address someone who rejects Philippa's premise? Can one make a moral decision to turn away from the trolley, the tracks, the five tied people, the single tied person, and the switch? Is it a moral decision to declare that one is inside the vision of a mad philosopher and refuse to acknowledge the switch because it is not there?
"I cannot possibly know the things required to make a moral decision," one might object. "I cannot see the tied people in the distance or predict the outcome of flipping a switch. Nor, absent knowledge of any other safeguards in place on the trolley, can I sacrifice one person to save five, when I have no way of knowing that my sacrifice will be effective or even necessary."
Is that a moral decision or an ontological one? Does it matter which? 


Eric
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