[lit-ideas] Re: Trolleyology
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2010 21:11:30 +0100 (BST)
--- On Thu, 14/10/10, Eric Yost <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Obviously one would do nothing but stroll to the front of
> the trolley and laugh at the squirming, bound, moral
> problem-posers as they see the trolley approach. Then locate
> the mad philosopher and call in an air strike.
>
> This demonstrates the importance of good intelligence work,
> not only in matters of national security, but also in moral
> problems.
Intelligence work might suggest that, while tying someone to a railway track is
a staple of the cinema and requires no suspension of disbelief where the raised
track is somewhere isolated from the rest of the population, tying someone to
the kind of embedded track that a tram runs on is not a cinematic staple
because - in addition to the likely intervention of members of the public - it
would be f-kg hard to do. You'd have to glue them.
But then genuine or realistic problems are not the staple of many so-called
moral philosophers. If the mob came baying her blood, would Kant really have
told them:- "Mother? Yeh - you'll find her decorating cupcakes in the parlour,"
or even, "I'd rather not be drawn on her exact whereabouts, if you don't mind.
But I can say that there's rather a lot of you and you seem quite miffed and
well-armed." Phillipa should have focused more on the kinds of issue faced by
the recently departed philosopher, Claire Rayner.
D
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