Four - Moral Decision Making
How We Tell Right from Wrong
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
In 1978, philosopher Phillipa Foot asked readers to consider the following moral dilemma:
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 diff erent track to safety. Unfortunately, there is a single person tied to that track. Should you flip the switch or do nothing?
Most people choose to flip the switch because choosing to save five lives over one life seems like the right thing to do. But now consider this version of the trolley problem proposed by Judith Jarvis Thomson (1985).
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?
In contrast to the standard-trolley problem, most people believe that pushing the fat man is wrong – even though it means five other lives will be lost.
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- Good ThinkingSeven Powerful Ideas That Influence the Way We Think, pp. 59 - 79Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012