The trolley problem is a thought experiment that explores a moral dilemma of whether it is right to sacrifice one person to save multiple people. The general scenario involves a runaway trolley barreling down railway tracks towards five people who cannot move. The person observing can flip a switch to divert the trolley onto a side track where it will kill one person instead of the five. Variations on this problem explore different factors like directly killing the one person instead of as a side effect, or if the one person is a villain. Neuroscience studies have found people have an emotional resistance to directly killing someone but are more willing to passively allow death.
These slides are for an Introduction to Philosophy course at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They talk about Philippa Foot's discussion of the "trolley driver" and "transplant" problems, as well as Thomson's discussion of "bystander at the switch" and "fat man.:
These slides are for a course called Introduction to Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They assume that students have already watched three videos, here: https://youtu.be/99wc1C_yDIM?list=PLaSGognTdxBBGIET_i-vJ39HmiWG6OqnV
An Introduction to Philosophy
Lecture 07: Applied Ethics
James Mooney
Open Studies
The University of Edinburgh
j.mooney@ed.ac.uk
www.filmandphilosophy.com
@film_philosophy
These slides are for an Introduction to Philosophy course at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They talk about Philippa Foot's discussion of the "trolley driver" and "transplant" problems, as well as Thomson's discussion of "bystander at the switch" and "fat man.:
These slides are for a course called Introduction to Philosophy at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC, Canada. They assume that students have already watched three videos, here: https://youtu.be/99wc1C_yDIM?list=PLaSGognTdxBBGIET_i-vJ39HmiWG6OqnV
An Introduction to Philosophy
Lecture 07: Applied Ethics
James Mooney
Open Studies
The University of Edinburgh
j.mooney@ed.ac.uk
www.filmandphilosophy.com
@film_philosophy
How to Write an Argumentative Essay Step By Step - Gudwriter. 2 Argumentative Essay Examples With a Fighting Chance. Argumentative Essay.docx | Higher Education | Government | Free 30-day .... Argumentative Essay Format. 019 Argumentative Essay Examples Middle School Example Persuasive .... 14 Best Images of College Essay Outline Worksheet - Essay Research .... 009 Essay Example Good Persuasive Topics For Middle School As Well .... FREE 15+ Argumentative Essay Samples in PDF | MS Word. Sample Argumentative Essay. 10+ Argumentative Essay Outline Templates - PDF. Argumentative Writing - 6+ Examples, Format, Pdf | Examples. Argumentative Essay. 013 Argumentative Essays Examples Brilliant Ideas Of How To Write An .... 004 Sample Argumentative Essay Outline Example ~ Thatsnotus. Argumentative Essay Examples - PDF. Argumentative Essay Examples, Structure & Topics | Pro Essay Help. FREE 9+ Argumentative Essay Samples in PDF. 016 Argumentative Essays Format ~ Thatsnotus. 50 Compelling Argumentative Essay Topics - Topics for writing an ....
6.1 How Should One ActJeremy Bentham is associated with the fou.docxalinainglis
6.1 How Should One Act?
Jeremy Bentham is associated with the founding of utilitarianism, which states that given a choice between two acts, the one that creates greater happiness for the greatest number of people should be chosen.
Ethics, or moral philosophy, investigates how we can evaluate our behavior in terms of right and wrong, good and bad—in other words, how we determine what we should do, what we should not do, and how to tell the difference. After looking at the three classical ethical views that philosophers have presented and some of the problems with these theories, we will explore some alternative approaches.
Utilitarianism
Suppose you and five of your friends are hanging out one night and decide to order a pizza. You are all equally hungry and decide to order two pizzas, each of which has six slices. Thus, when the pizzas are delivered, it is pretty easy to determine how to divide the pizzas in a way that is the fairest: Everyone gets two slices. It may be that one person wanted a third slice, and someone else may have only wanted one. Yet without knowing anything else, this arrangement, more than any other, will be the most beneficial to the greatest number of people.
This simple example demonstrates the basic notion at the heart of the ethical doctrine known as utilitarianism. Often associated with the philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748–1822) and John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism offers a very straightforward and direct way to evaluate behavior. When given a choice between two acts, utilitarianism states that the act that should be chosen is the one that creates the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Philosophers (and economists) often use the term utility to express this quality. Utility is the satisfaction one gets from something. For instance, if you like chocolate ice cream more than vanilla ice cream, we can say that chocolate ice cream has a higher utility for you, relative to vanilla ice cream. In theory, at least, each of us can rank all of our choices according to a scale that indicates our relative preferences. Some philosophers, such as Bentham, even attempted to assign numbers to these preferences. If someone likes chocolate ice cream five times as much as vanilla ice cream, that person would presumably be willing to accept five vanilla ice cream cones as a substitute for one chocolate ice cream cone. It should also be noted that utility is regarded in terms of net utility: The correct moral choice is that which generates the greatest good and also minimizes unhappiness.
Because utilitarianism considers an act's consequences in assessing its morality, utilitarianism is also regarded as a consequentialist theory. The basic idea in consequentialism is to consider the consequences that will result from the choices one confronts: If the consequences of one act produce the greatest net good—or the highest utility—for the greatest number of people, this is the act one should carry out. Many pe.
Essay on Disadvantages of Internet | Disadvantages of Internet Essay .... Advantages And Disadvantages Of Internet Essay For Class 5 – Sketsa. Short Essay on Advantages and Disadvantages of the Internet [100, 200 .... 007 Essay Example The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Internet ~ Thatsnotus. Essay on Internet Advantages and Disadvantages for Class 1-12. Essay on Internet: Advantages and Disadvantages - Leverage Edu - Essay .... Advantages And Disadvantages Of Internet Essay For 9 Class – Coretan. Internet Anonymity: Balancing Privacy and Responsibility Free Essay Example. Disadvantages of Online Learning Essay - RomancelCabrera. Essay the Advantages and Disadvantages of Using the Internet | Internet .... Essay on advantages and disadvantages of internet for students - Google .... Advantages and disadvantages of internet essay for class 9 in 2021 .... Essay disadvantages of internet. Essay about the advantages and disadvantages of the internet .... 003 The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Internet Essay ~ Thatsnotus. Advantages And Disadvantages Of Internet Essay Pdf - nutree. Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Essay | Pros and Cons of Using .... Phenomenal Disadvantages And Advantages Of Internet Essay ~ Thatsnotus.
Gay Rights Movement Sample Essay | 123HelpMe.org. The Society Acceptance of LGBT - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. Policy Essay 4 LGBT - My objective for my policy LGBT rights would be .... ⭐ Lgbt rights essay. LGBT Rights Argumentative Essay: Great Tips For .... Gay rights essay thesis writing. Research Paper On Gay Rights - What the Struggle for Gay Rights Teaches .... Custom Essay | amazonia.fiocruz.br. The Civil Rights Movement And Gay Pride Essay | PPT. Party and protest: the radical history of gay liberation, Stonewall and .... ⇉The History of the Gay Rights Movement Essay Example | GraduateWay. Gender-Related Issues and History of Gay Rights Essay Example | Topics .... ⚡ Gay rights movement essay. Gay Liberation Movement. 2022-10-18. (PDF) Making LGBT Rights into Human Rights | Anthony J Langlois .... Gay Marriage Essay | Legal Studies - Year 11 HSC | Thinkswap. Essay Gay Marriage | PDF | Same Sex Marriage | Homosexuality. Research Paper On Gay Rights. ≫ Lesbian and Gay Rights and Discrimination of Homosexuals Free Essay .... LGBT essay.docx | Lgbt | LGBTQ Rights | Free 30-day Trial | Scribd. Research Paper On Gay Rights : Gay rights movement. Research Paper On Gay Rights — Global LGBT Rights. How The Law Protects LGBTQ Youth - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. LGBT Rights Argumentative Essay: Great Tips For Every Student. LGBTQ Community in America - Essay - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. Civil Rights Regarding Gay Rights - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. Essay about the gay rights movement 3319 words. Essay On LGBT History in Australia | Legal Studies - Year 12 HSC .... PPT - gay rights essay PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID:12401262. Critical Essay | Lgbt Social Movements | Homosexuality. Gay Rights Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays .... Gay Rights Movement Essay. Gays Rights in Russia & USA Essay Example | StudyHippo.com. lgbt-essay 1 .pdf - LGBT essay LGBT is a community which consist of .... Sullivan: The Gay Rights Movement Is Undoing Its Best Work Gay Rights Movement Essay
THE MORAL REASONS FOR AND AGAINST SUICIDE[Assuming that .docxoreo10
THE MORAL REASONS FOR AND AGAINST
SUICIDE
[Assuming that there is suicide if and only if there
is intentional termination of one's own life,]
persons who say suicide is morally wrong must be
asked which of two positions they are affirming:
Are they saying that every act of suicide is wrong,
everything considered; or are they merely saying
that there is always some moral obligationdoubtless
of serious weight-not to commit suicide, so that
very often suicide is wrong, although it is possible
that there are countervailing considerations which
in particular situations make it right or even a moral
duty? It is quite evident that the first position is
absurd; only the second has a chance of being
defensible.
In order to make clear what is wrong, with the
first view, we may begin with an example. Suppose
an army pilot's singleseater plane goes out of
control over a heavily populated area; he has the
choice of staying in the plane and bringing it down
where it will do little damage but at the cost of
certain death for himself, and of bailing out and
letting the plane fall where it will, very possibly
killing a good many civilians. Suppose he chooses
to do the former, and so, by our definition, commits
suicide. Does anyone want to say that his action is
morally wrong? Even Immanuel Kant, who
opposed suicide in all circumstances, apparently
would not wish to say that it is; he would, in fact,
judge that this act is not one of suicide, for he says,
"It is no suicide to risk one's life against one's
enemies, and even to sacrifice it, in order to
preserve one's duties toward oneself * "1 St.
Thomas Aquinas, in his discussion of suicide, may
seem to take the position that such an act would be
wrong, for he says, "It is altogether unlawful to kill
oneself," admitting as an exception only the case of
being under special command of God. But I believe
St. Thomas would, in fact, have concluded that the
act is
From A Handbook for the Study of Suicide,
edited by Seymour Perlin. Copyright 1975 by
Oxford University Press. Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.
right because the basic intention of the pilot was to
save the lives of civilians, and whether an act is
right or wrong is a matter of basic intention.2
In general, we have to admit that there are
things with some moral obligation to avoid which,
on account of other morally relevant considerations,
it is sometimes right or even morally obligatory to
do. There may be some obligation to tell the truth
on every occasion, but surely in many cases the
consequences of telling the truth would be so dire
that one is obligated to lie. The same goes for
promises. There is some moral obligation to do
what one has promised (with a few exceptions); but,
if one can keep a trivial promise only at serious cost
to another person (i.e., keep an appointment only by
failing to give aid to someone injured in an
accident), it is surely obligatory t ...
PHIL 105-010January 26th, 2016Informal Fallacies.docxrandymartin91030
PHIL 105-010
January 26th, 2016
Informal Fallacies
Please Note
The examples of fallacies are given in italics.
The explanations are in plain text.
You are welcome to go online to look for more examples.
You will be tested on these fallacies.
There is a practice quiz at the end.
Informal Fallacies
Informal Fallacies are errors in informal or casual reasoning.
They are often committed in casual conversation.
But you can also find them in the media.
People are often unaware that they are committing an informal fallacy.
Committing an informal fallacy often reveals what our reality and value assumptions are.
#1 Fallacy of Composition
When the attribute of an individual or part of something is attributed to the whole or group.
The cells in my body are round; therefore my body is round.
False. The attribute of a cell (roundness) cannot be attributed to what those cells make up, i.e., the body.
The cup holder in my car is made of plastic; therefore, my car is made of plastic.
#2 Fallacy of Division
The opposite of the fallacy of composition.
The idea that an attribute of the whole can be applied to the individual parts of that whole.
Drexel is an old university; therefore, all the professors are old.
False. The attribute of the whole (Drexel is old) cannot be applied to what makes up Drexel (for example, the professors).
The earth is round; therefore, all earthlings are round.
#3 Circular Reasoning
When the conclusion you arrive at is actually already present in your premises (the ideas you believe support your conclusion).
It appears as if you are repeating yourself.
There’s only survival of the fittest because only the fittest survive.
What the Bible says is true because the Bible is true (or because the Bible says so).
#4 Loaded Question
When you ask someone a question to which there is no good answer and the other person cannot extricate themselves
Have you stopped beating your wife yet?
If you says yes, you are still beating your wife.
If you say no, it means you admit to once beating your wife.
There is no way to win.
Are you stoned or stupid?
These are usually rhetorical questions.
#5 Naturalistic Fallacy
That because something is the case in nature it ought to be the case, usually among humans.
This is taking a reality assumption and converting it into a value assumption.
Swans are monogamous; therefore, humans should be monogamous.
Bonobos are promiscuous; therefore, humans should be promiscuous.
Fish swim; therefore, humans should swim.
#6 cum hoc ergo propter hoc
Also known as “correlation = causation”
However, correlation does not equal causation
Children who wear big shoes also have good handwriting. Therefore, wearing big shoes causes good handwriting.
No, wearing big shoes does NOT cause good handwriting. These things are merely correlated.
This is how superstitions can start.
Because I wore those red socks, I hit the home run. Those are my lucky red socks.
#7 Fallacy of Accident.
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6.1 How Should One ActJeremy Bentham is associated with the fou.docxalinainglis
6.1 How Should One Act?
Jeremy Bentham is associated with the founding of utilitarianism, which states that given a choice between two acts, the one that creates greater happiness for the greatest number of people should be chosen.
Ethics, or moral philosophy, investigates how we can evaluate our behavior in terms of right and wrong, good and bad—in other words, how we determine what we should do, what we should not do, and how to tell the difference. After looking at the three classical ethical views that philosophers have presented and some of the problems with these theories, we will explore some alternative approaches.
Utilitarianism
Suppose you and five of your friends are hanging out one night and decide to order a pizza. You are all equally hungry and decide to order two pizzas, each of which has six slices. Thus, when the pizzas are delivered, it is pretty easy to determine how to divide the pizzas in a way that is the fairest: Everyone gets two slices. It may be that one person wanted a third slice, and someone else may have only wanted one. Yet without knowing anything else, this arrangement, more than any other, will be the most beneficial to the greatest number of people.
This simple example demonstrates the basic notion at the heart of the ethical doctrine known as utilitarianism. Often associated with the philosophers Jeremy Bentham (1748–1822) and John Stuart Mill, utilitarianism offers a very straightforward and direct way to evaluate behavior. When given a choice between two acts, utilitarianism states that the act that should be chosen is the one that creates the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. Philosophers (and economists) often use the term utility to express this quality. Utility is the satisfaction one gets from something. For instance, if you like chocolate ice cream more than vanilla ice cream, we can say that chocolate ice cream has a higher utility for you, relative to vanilla ice cream. In theory, at least, each of us can rank all of our choices according to a scale that indicates our relative preferences. Some philosophers, such as Bentham, even attempted to assign numbers to these preferences. If someone likes chocolate ice cream five times as much as vanilla ice cream, that person would presumably be willing to accept five vanilla ice cream cones as a substitute for one chocolate ice cream cone. It should also be noted that utility is regarded in terms of net utility: The correct moral choice is that which generates the greatest good and also minimizes unhappiness.
Because utilitarianism considers an act's consequences in assessing its morality, utilitarianism is also regarded as a consequentialist theory. The basic idea in consequentialism is to consider the consequences that will result from the choices one confronts: If the consequences of one act produce the greatest net good—or the highest utility—for the greatest number of people, this is the act one should carry out. Many pe.
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Gay Rights Movement Sample Essay | 123HelpMe.org. The Society Acceptance of LGBT - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. Policy Essay 4 LGBT - My objective for my policy LGBT rights would be .... ⭐ Lgbt rights essay. LGBT Rights Argumentative Essay: Great Tips For .... Gay rights essay thesis writing. Research Paper On Gay Rights - What the Struggle for Gay Rights Teaches .... Custom Essay | amazonia.fiocruz.br. The Civil Rights Movement And Gay Pride Essay | PPT. Party and protest: the radical history of gay liberation, Stonewall and .... ⇉The History of the Gay Rights Movement Essay Example | GraduateWay. Gender-Related Issues and History of Gay Rights Essay Example | Topics .... ⚡ Gay rights movement essay. Gay Liberation Movement. 2022-10-18. (PDF) Making LGBT Rights into Human Rights | Anthony J Langlois .... Gay Marriage Essay | Legal Studies - Year 11 HSC | Thinkswap. Essay Gay Marriage | PDF | Same Sex Marriage | Homosexuality. Research Paper On Gay Rights. ≫ Lesbian and Gay Rights and Discrimination of Homosexuals Free Essay .... LGBT essay.docx | Lgbt | LGBTQ Rights | Free 30-day Trial | Scribd. Research Paper On Gay Rights : Gay rights movement. Research Paper On Gay Rights — Global LGBT Rights. How The Law Protects LGBTQ Youth - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. LGBT Rights Argumentative Essay: Great Tips For Every Student. LGBTQ Community in America - Essay - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. Civil Rights Regarding Gay Rights - Free Essay Example | PapersOwl.com. Essay about the gay rights movement 3319 words. Essay On LGBT History in Australia | Legal Studies - Year 12 HSC .... PPT - gay rights essay PowerPoint Presentation, free download - ID:12401262. Critical Essay | Lgbt Social Movements | Homosexuality. Gay Rights Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays .... Gay Rights Movement Essay. Gays Rights in Russia & USA Essay Example | StudyHippo.com. lgbt-essay 1 .pdf - LGBT essay LGBT is a community which consist of .... Sullivan: The Gay Rights Movement Is Undoing Its Best Work Gay Rights Movement Essay
THE MORAL REASONS FOR AND AGAINST SUICIDE[Assuming that .docxoreo10
THE MORAL REASONS FOR AND AGAINST
SUICIDE
[Assuming that there is suicide if and only if there
is intentional termination of one's own life,]
persons who say suicide is morally wrong must be
asked which of two positions they are affirming:
Are they saying that every act of suicide is wrong,
everything considered; or are they merely saying
that there is always some moral obligationdoubtless
of serious weight-not to commit suicide, so that
very often suicide is wrong, although it is possible
that there are countervailing considerations which
in particular situations make it right or even a moral
duty? It is quite evident that the first position is
absurd; only the second has a chance of being
defensible.
In order to make clear what is wrong, with the
first view, we may begin with an example. Suppose
an army pilot's singleseater plane goes out of
control over a heavily populated area; he has the
choice of staying in the plane and bringing it down
where it will do little damage but at the cost of
certain death for himself, and of bailing out and
letting the plane fall where it will, very possibly
killing a good many civilians. Suppose he chooses
to do the former, and so, by our definition, commits
suicide. Does anyone want to say that his action is
morally wrong? Even Immanuel Kant, who
opposed suicide in all circumstances, apparently
would not wish to say that it is; he would, in fact,
judge that this act is not one of suicide, for he says,
"It is no suicide to risk one's life against one's
enemies, and even to sacrifice it, in order to
preserve one's duties toward oneself * "1 St.
Thomas Aquinas, in his discussion of suicide, may
seem to take the position that such an act would be
wrong, for he says, "It is altogether unlawful to kill
oneself," admitting as an exception only the case of
being under special command of God. But I believe
St. Thomas would, in fact, have concluded that the
act is
From A Handbook for the Study of Suicide,
edited by Seymour Perlin. Copyright 1975 by
Oxford University Press. Inc. Reprinted by
permission of Oxford University Press, Inc.
right because the basic intention of the pilot was to
save the lives of civilians, and whether an act is
right or wrong is a matter of basic intention.2
In general, we have to admit that there are
things with some moral obligation to avoid which,
on account of other morally relevant considerations,
it is sometimes right or even morally obligatory to
do. There may be some obligation to tell the truth
on every occasion, but surely in many cases the
consequences of telling the truth would be so dire
that one is obligated to lie. The same goes for
promises. There is some moral obligation to do
what one has promised (with a few exceptions); but,
if one can keep a trivial promise only at serious cost
to another person (i.e., keep an appointment only by
failing to give aid to someone injured in an
accident), it is surely obligatory t ...
PHIL 105-010January 26th, 2016Informal Fallacies.docxrandymartin91030
PHIL 105-010
January 26th, 2016
Informal Fallacies
Please Note
The examples of fallacies are given in italics.
The explanations are in plain text.
You are welcome to go online to look for more examples.
You will be tested on these fallacies.
There is a practice quiz at the end.
Informal Fallacies
Informal Fallacies are errors in informal or casual reasoning.
They are often committed in casual conversation.
But you can also find them in the media.
People are often unaware that they are committing an informal fallacy.
Committing an informal fallacy often reveals what our reality and value assumptions are.
#1 Fallacy of Composition
When the attribute of an individual or part of something is attributed to the whole or group.
The cells in my body are round; therefore my body is round.
False. The attribute of a cell (roundness) cannot be attributed to what those cells make up, i.e., the body.
The cup holder in my car is made of plastic; therefore, my car is made of plastic.
#2 Fallacy of Division
The opposite of the fallacy of composition.
The idea that an attribute of the whole can be applied to the individual parts of that whole.
Drexel is an old university; therefore, all the professors are old.
False. The attribute of the whole (Drexel is old) cannot be applied to what makes up Drexel (for example, the professors).
The earth is round; therefore, all earthlings are round.
#3 Circular Reasoning
When the conclusion you arrive at is actually already present in your premises (the ideas you believe support your conclusion).
It appears as if you are repeating yourself.
There’s only survival of the fittest because only the fittest survive.
What the Bible says is true because the Bible is true (or because the Bible says so).
#4 Loaded Question
When you ask someone a question to which there is no good answer and the other person cannot extricate themselves
Have you stopped beating your wife yet?
If you says yes, you are still beating your wife.
If you say no, it means you admit to once beating your wife.
There is no way to win.
Are you stoned or stupid?
These are usually rhetorical questions.
#5 Naturalistic Fallacy
That because something is the case in nature it ought to be the case, usually among humans.
This is taking a reality assumption and converting it into a value assumption.
Swans are monogamous; therefore, humans should be monogamous.
Bonobos are promiscuous; therefore, humans should be promiscuous.
Fish swim; therefore, humans should swim.
#6 cum hoc ergo propter hoc
Also known as “correlation = causation”
However, correlation does not equal causation
Children who wear big shoes also have good handwriting. Therefore, wearing big shoes causes good handwriting.
No, wearing big shoes does NOT cause good handwriting. These things are merely correlated.
This is how superstitions can start.
Because I wore those red socks, I hit the home run. Those are my lucky red socks.
#7 Fallacy of Accident.
Woolf on Mary Wollstonecraft Essay Example | StudyHippo.com. Analyzing Vindication of Mary Wollstonecraft Essay Example | Topics and .... First page of Mary Wollstonecraft's Thoughts on the Education of .... Mary wollstonecraft essay. The Impact of Mary Wollstonecraft on the .... BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Enlightenment Voices, Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary wollstonecraft essay thesis generator. BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Enlightenment Voices, Mary Wollstonecraft, Part 1. Mary Wollstonecraft On Education | PDF | Mary Wollstonecraft | A .... Mary Wollstonecraft's Journey to Scandinavia: Essays (Acta .... Mary Wollstonecraft | COVE. Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Thoughts on the Education of Daughters .... Mary Wollstonecraft.doc | Mary Wollstonecraft | Social Ideologies. How Should We Commemorate Mary Wollstonecraft? - Public Seminar. Mary Wollstonecraft: libertarian feminist - Students For Liberty North .... Mary Wollstonecraft | Biography, Works, & Facts | Britannica.com. Critical Introduction - Mary Wollstonecraft: An Annotated Bibliography .... Vindication PDF - Lyndall Gordon A Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Mary Wollstonecraft - GRIN. Mary Wollstonecraft’s “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” – Becker .... Not Quite So Radical: A Modern Critique of Mary Wollstonecraft’s ....
1. Trolley problem
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The trolley problem is a thought experiment in ethics, first introduced by Philippa Foot in 1967,[1] but also
extensively analysed by Judith Jarvis Thomson,[2][3] Peter Unger,[4] and Frances Kamm as recently as
1996.[5] Outside of the domain of traditional philosophical discussion, the trolley problem has been a significant
feature in the fields of cognitive science and, more recently, of neuroethics. It has also been a topic on various
TV shows dealing with human psychology.[citation needed]
The general form of the problem is this: There is a runaway trolley barrelling down the railway tracks. Ahead,
on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are
standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a
different set of tracks. Unfortunately, you notice that there is one person on the side track. You have two
options: (1) Do nothing, and the trolley kills 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 correct choice?
Contents
[hide]
1 Overview
2 Related problems
o 2.1 The fat man
o 2.2 The fat villain
o 2.3 The loop variant
o 2.4 Transplant
o 2.5 The man in the yard
3 In cognitive science
4 In neuroethics
5 Psychology
6 Views of professional philosophers
7 As urban legend
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
2. Overview[edit]
Foot's original formulation of the problem ran as follows:[1]
Suppose that a judge or magistrate is faced with rioters demanding that a culprit be found for a certain
crime and threatening otherwise to take their own bloody revenge on a particular section of the
community. The real culprit being unknown, the judge sees himself as able to prevent the bloodshed
only by framing some innocent person and having him executed. Beside this example is placed
another in which a pilot whose aeroplane is about to crash is deciding whether to steer from a more to
a less inhabited area. To make the parallel as close as possible it may rather be supposed that he is
the driver of a runaway tram which he can only steer from one narrow track on to another; five men are
working on one track and one man on the other; anyone on the track he enters is bound to be killed. In
the case of the riots the mob have five hostages, so that in both the exchange is supposed to be one
man's life for the lives of five.
A utilitarian view asserts that it is obligatory to steer to the track with one man on it. According to simple
utilitarianism, such a decision would be not only permissible, but, morally speaking, the better option (the
other option being no action at all).[6] An alternate viewpoint is that since moral wrongs are already in place
in the situation, moving to another track constitutes a participation in the moral wrong, making one partially
responsible for the death when otherwise no one would be responsible. An opponent of action may also
point to the incommensurability of human lives. Under some interpretations of moral obligation, simply
being present in this situation and being able to influence its outcome constitutes an obligation to
participate. If this were the case, then deciding to do nothing would be considered an immoral act if one
values five lives more than one.
Related problems[edit]
The initial trolley problem becomes more interesting when it is compared to other moral dilemmas.
The fat man[edit]
One such is that offered by Judith Jarvis Thomson:
As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You are on a bridge under which it will
pass, and you can stop it by dropping a heavy weight in front of it. As it happens, there is a very fat
man next to you – your only way to stop the trolley is to push him over the bridge and onto the track,
killing him to save five. Should you proceed?
Resistance to this course of action seems strong; most people who approved of sacrificing one to
save five in the first case do not approve in the second sort of case.[7] This has led to attempts to find
a relevant moral distinction between the two cases.
3. One clear distinction is that in the first case, one does not intend harm towards anyone – harming the
one is just a side effect of switching the trolley away from the five. However, in the second case,
harming the one is an integral part of the plan to save the five. This is an argument Shelly
Kagan considers, and ultimately rejects, in The Limits of Morality.[8]
A claim can be made that the difference between the two cases is that in the second, you intend
someone's death to save the five, and this is wrong, whereas in the first, you have no such intention.
This solution is essentially an application of the doctrine of double effect, which says that you may
take action which has bad side effects, but deliberately intending harm (even for good causes) is
wrong.
Act utilitarians deny this. So do some non-utilitarians such as Peter Unger, who rejects that it can
make a substantive moral difference whether you bring the harm to the one or whether you move the
one into the path of the harm.[citation needed] Note, however, that rule utilitarians do not have to accept
this, and can say that pushing the fat man over the bridge violates a rule to which adherence is
necessary for bringing about the greatest happiness for the greatest number.[citation needed]
Another distinction is that the first case is similar to a pilot in an airplane that has lost power and is
about to crash and currently heading towards a heavily populated area. Even if he knows for sure that
innocent people will die if he redirects the plane to a less populated area – people who are
"uninvolved" – he will actively turn the plane without hesitation. It may well be considered noble to
sacrifice your own life to protect others, but morally or legally allowing murder of an innocent person in
order to save five people may be insufficient justification.[clarification needed]
The fat villain[edit]
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The further development of this example involves the case, where the fat man is, in fact, the villain
who put these five people in peril. In this instance, pushing the villain to his death, especially to save
five innocent people, seems not just moral, but, to some,[who?] also just and even an imperative. This is
essentially related to another famous thought experiment, known as ticking time bomb scenario, which
forces one to choose between two morally questionable acts. Several papers argue that ticking time
bomb scenario is a mere variation of the trolley problem.
The loop variant[edit]
4. The claim that it is wrong to use the death of one to save five, runs into a problem with variants like
this:
As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. As in the first case, you can divert it
onto a separate track. However, this diversion loops back around to rejoin the main track, so diverting
the trolley still leaves it on a path to run over the five people. But, on this track is a single fat person
who, when he is killed by the trolley, will stop it from continuing on to the five people. Should you flip
the switch?
The only difference between this case and the original trolley problem is that an extra piece of
track has been added, which seems a trivial difference (especially since the trolley won't travel
down it anyway). So, if we originally decided that it is permissible or necessary to flip the switch,
intuition may suggest that the answer should not have changed. However, in this case, the death
of the one actually is part of the plan to save the five.
The rejoining variant may not be fatal to the "using a person as a means" argument. This has
been suggested by M. Costa in his 1987 article "Another Trip on the Trolley", where he points out
that if we fail to act in this scenario we will effectively be allowing the five to become a means to
save the one. If we do nothing, then the impact of the trolley into the five will slow it down and
prevent it from circling around and killing the one.[citation needed] As in either case, some will become
a means to saving others, then we are permitted to count the numbers. This approach requires
that we downplay the moral difference between doing and allowing.
However, this line of reasoning is no longer applicable if a slight change is made to the track
arrangements such that the one person was never in danger to begin with, even if the 5 people
were absent. Or even with no track changes, if the one person is high on the gradient while the
five are low, such that the trolley cannot reach the one. So the question has not been answered.
Even in the situation where the people aren't tied down due to a criminal act, but simply happen
to be there without the ability to warn them, the out-of-control trolley is similar to the out-of-control
airplane. Either 5/500 or 1/100 people are going to die as a result of the accident already in
progress, and it is important to minimize the loss of life, despite the fact that the 1/100 are
effectively being "used" to spare the life of the 5/500. The 100 people (and their property) in the
less-densely-populated area do in fact stop the plane too. Responsibility for this goes back to any
criminal negligence that caused the accident to occur in the first place.
Transplant[edit]
Here is an alternative case, due to Judith Jarvis Thomson,[3] containing similar numbers and
results, but without a trolley:
5. 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.
The man in the yard[edit]
Unger argues extensively against traditional non-utilitarian responses to trolley problems.
This is one of his examples:
As before, a trolley is hurtling down a track towards five people. You can divert its path by colliding
another trolley into it, but if you do, both will be derailed and go down a hill, and into a yard where a
man is sleeping in a hammock. He would be killed. Should you proceed?
Responses to this are partly dependent on whether the reader has already encountered
the standard trolley problem (since there is a desire to keep one's responses
consistent), but Unger notes that people who have not encountered such problems
before are quite likely to say that, in this case, the proposed action would be wrong.
Unger therefore argues that different responses to these sorts of problems are based
more on psychology than ethics – in this new case, he says, the only important
difference is that the man in the yard does not seem particularly "involved". Unger
claims that people therefore believe the man is not "fair game", but says that this lack of
involvement in the scenario cannot make a moral difference.
Unger also considers cases which are more complex than the original trolley problem,
involving more than just two results. In one such case, it is possible to do something
which will (a) save the five and kill four (passengers of one or more trolleys and/or the
hammock-sleeper), (b) save the five and kill three, (c) save the five and kill two, (d) save
the five and kill one, or (e) do nothing and let five die. Most naïve subjects presented
with this sort of case, claims Unger, will choose (d), to save the five by killing one, even
if this course of action involves doing something very similar to killing the fat man, as in
Thomson's case above.[citation needed]
This scenario is similar to the fact that whenever a crime is in progress and someone
calls the police, even though it is known well in advance that calls to police each year
end up creating pedestrian and motorist deaths due to accidents, very few people would
consider disbanding the police to ensure that no innocents should die en route to a
6. crime scene. In the case where the five aren't tied down due to a criminal act, it still falls
into the category of diverting a crashing plane into a less-densely-populated area.
In cognitive science[edit]
The trolley problem was first imported into cognitive science from philosophy in a
systematic way by Hauser, Mikhail, et al,[9] They hypothesized that factors such as
gender, age, education level, and cultural background would have little influence on the
judgments people make, in part because those judgments are generated by an
unconscious “moral grammar”[10] that is analogous in some respects to the unconscious
linguistic grammars that have been claimed byNoam Chomsky et al to support ordinary
language use ( this latter claim regarding language has been strongly rebutted by Dan
Everett and by Evans and Levinson.[11]) It should be noted that the data in Hauser,
Mikhail et al's 2007 paper only contains 33 individuals brought up in a non-English-speaking
educational system. The main author, Marc Hauser, was subsequently
sanctioned by his then employer, Harvard University, in eight (unrelated) cases of gross
research malpractice and data falsification, which arguably makes the data in any case
unreliable. Subsequent cross-cultural research has found many apparent
counterexamples to this idea of 'Universal Moral Grammar'[12]
In neuroethics[edit]
In taking a neuroscientific approach to the trolley problem, Joshua Greene[13] under
Jonathan Cohen decided to examine the nature of brain response to moral and ethical
conundra through the use of fMRI. In their more well-known experiments,[14] Greene and
Cohen analyzed subjects' responses to the morality of responses in both the trolley
problem involving a switch, and a footbridge scenario analogous to the fat man variation
of the trolley problem. Their hypothesis suggested that encountering such conflicts
evokes both a strong emotional response as well as a reasoned cognitive response that
tend to oppose one another. From the fMRI results, they have found that situations
highly evoking a more prominent emotional response such as the fat man variant would
result in significantly higher brain activity in brain regions associated with response
conflict. Meanwhile, more conflict-neutral scenarios, such as the relatively disaffected
switch variant, would produce more activity in brain regions associated with higher
cognitive functions. The potential ethical ideas being broached, then, revolve around the
human capacity for rational justification of moral decision making.
Psychology[edit]
7. In many years of surveys, the vast majority of people — usually about 90% — have
chosen to kill the one and save the five. But until now, there’s never been a study
examining how people would react in a lifelike setting with real-looking potential victims.
In the Michigan State study, led by psychologist David Navarette, the 147 participants
made their choice while wearing a head-mounted virtual-reality device that projected
avatars of those who could die. One chilling factor of the test: the potential victims were
screaming as the boxcar approached.
The 147 subjects also had electrodes attached to their skin in order to measure their
autonomic responses, the involuntary nervous-system responses that can spike when
we are faced with stress. Navarette and his team found that, once again, 90% of us
would kill the one to save the five. Among the 147 participants, 133 pulled the switch.
Interestingly, those who were more emotionally aroused during the simulation — based
on measurements of electrical conductivity along the skin — were less likely to kill the
one.
In another test, the Michigan State team changed the experiment so that the train would
kill the one person unless it was diverted to kill the five. In other words, this time the
participants had to choose passive, restrained action: just let the train continue on its
course and run over the single person. Once again, 90% chose to save the five over the
one. This group was also, on average, less emotionally excited than the 10% who had to
act to save the one life.
[15