[lit-ideas] Re: Trolleyology
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 12:25:55 EDT
Foot:
"A trolley is running out of control down a track. In its path are five
people who have been tied to the track by a mad philosopher. Fortunately, you
could 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 or do nothing?"
From the Boston Globe obituary:
"It was the Trolley Problem, however, that captured the imagination of
scholars outside her discipline. In 1967, in the essay “The Problem of Abortion
and the Doctrine of the Double Effect,’’ she discussed, using a series of
provocative examples, the moral distinctions between intended and
unintended consequences, between doing and allowing, and between positive and
negative duties — the duty not to inflict harm weighed against the duty to
render aid.
The most arresting of her examples, offered in just a few sentences, was
the ethical dilemma faced by the driver of a runaway trolley hurtling toward
five track workers. By diverting the trolley to another track where there’s
just one worker, the driver can save five lives."
Part of the trolley problem is dissolved when we formalise, Geary suggests,
in a second-order deontic system of logic.
Speranza
----
Clearly, the driver should divert the trolley and kill one worker rather
than five.
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