Trolley Problem

[Nicotti]

I don't think I could move a man fat enough to stop a run away trolley.

[ropingk]

I don't think the fat man will want to be thrown in frount of the trolly dont his opinion count???

[tyler]

There aren't only 2 options to either of these scenarios, no matter how the question is phrased.

I don't have the authority to make a decision that would most certainly result in the death of any single person. I would do whatever I could to try and alert everyone to get off the track. If they weren't able to then they weren't able to, but one death isn't any easier to stomach than 5 deaths.

There are also intangibles that aren't mentioned. For instance, what if you're willing to throw that switch which kills the single guy but what if this guy is an only parent to a couple children whose mother is dead? Again, we don't know these things and I don't believe I have any right whatsoever to determine who lives and who dies, and certainly not based solely on numbers.

[slow_walker]

I don't have the authority to make a decision that would most certainly result in the death of any single person...one death isn't any easier to stomach than 5 deaths.

This is the heart of the entire debate. Check out this article
The article is very interesting, but very long. Here's the part of the article relating to the trolley problem:
The gap between people’s convictions and their justifications is also on display in the favorite new sandbox for moral psychologists, a thought experiment devised by the philosophers Philippa Foot and Judith Jarvis Thomson called the Trolley Problem. On your morning walk, you see a trolley car hurtling down the track, the conductor slumped over the controls. In the path of the trolley are five men working on the track, oblivious to the danger. You are standing at a fork in the track and can pull a lever that will divert the trolley onto a spur, saving the five men. Unfortunately, the trolley would then run over a single worker who is laboring on the spur. Is it permissible to throw the switch, killing one man to save five? Almost everyone says “yes.”

Consider now a different scene. You are on a bridge overlooking the tracks and have spotted the runaway trolley bearing down on the five workers. Now the only way to stop the trolley is to throw a heavy object in its path. And the only heavy object within reach is a fat man standing next to you. Should you throw the man off the bridge? Both dilemmas present you with the option of sacrificing one life to save five, and so, by the utilitarian standard of what would result in the greatest good for the greatest number, the two dilemmas are morally equivalent. But most people don’t see it that way: though they would pull the switch in the first dilemma, they would not heave the fat man in the second. When pressed for a reason, they can’t come up with anything coherent, though moral philosophers haven’t had an easy time coming up with a relevant difference, either.

[Nicotti]

Personally I reject moral questions like that, because they are too limited to predict morality. Morality is in the details. What if in the 1st example the 5 guys are black, the 1 guy is white, and the guy at the switch is kkk?

I think by limiting the choices available to solve the situation the creators of the problem limit the range of morality that can be expressed, kill 5 or kill 1? What if I flick the switch to kill one and find there is time to run over and knock him out of the way. Is that more moral than letting him die? Or what if I hesitate too long and he gets creamed, am I still equally as moral, I had the intention to save him after all?

Creativity in solving the problem should not be ignored.

[Nicotti]

I think you should have used this moral problem, it seems tailored to our geographical location...

Julie is traveling in France on summer vacation from college with her brother Mark. One night they decide that it would be interesting and fun if they tried making love. Julie was already taking birth-control pills, but Mark uses a condom, too, just to be safe. They both enjoy the sex but decide not to do it again. They keep the night as a special secret, which makes them feel closer to each other. What do you think about that — was it O.K. for them to make love?

[lolabelle]

I think you should have used this moral problem, it seems tailored to our geographical location...

Julie is traveling in France on summer vacation from college with her brother Mark. One night they decide that it would be interesting and fun if they tried making love. Julie was already taking birth-control pills, but Mark uses a condom, too, just to be safe. They both enjoy the sex but decide not to do it again. They keep the night as a special secret, which makes them feel closer to each other. What do you think about that — was it O.K. for them to make love?

lololol....wtf?!?!

[ropingk]

Wow I guess yuk is a word??? Having to kiss your sister on the cheek is bad but going that far...............

[GlassCurtain]

Julie is traveling in France on summer vacation from college with her brother Mark. One night they decide that it would be interesting and fun if they tried making love. Julie was already taking birth-control pills, but Mark uses a condom, too, just to be safe. They both enjoy the sex but decide not to do it again. They keep the night as a special secret, which makes them feel closer to each other. What do you think about that — was it O.K. for them to make love?

I'm guessing Julie and Mark are originaly from Arkansas?

[BROUSER]

And the answer is:
Only if Julie is really, really hot. But it's still not ok for her. She's an incestuous ho bag.

[graffitifetish]

We had to talk about this in Philosophy last semester, so I'm not playing.

[ropingk]

aw come on you are the one with the answers

[junkman306]

What's the one guy's name? I mean, do I know him? Do I know the five guys? What the fuck is a trolley doing in Republic anyway? Is there any chance I could sue the parent company for putting me in so much mental anguish? If the trolley is going slow enough that I could immediately become aware of the repercussions of either action, then why don't I have time to formulate another plan? In all groups of five guys doing heavy manual labor, there's usually just one standing around, doing nothing. How come he can't tell his co-workers to get off the track? If he's not there, where the hell is he? Did he call in sick? I'm pretty sure it's a union requirement that he be there.

Lol. Typical democratic answer. By the time he figures out the answers to these questions it'll all be over.

[Underdog]

"The good of the many outweighs the good of the few, or the one" ~ Spock


I try to relate Star Trek to my everyday life as much as I can. You can learn some good lessons from a guy with pointy ears.

[ropingk]

but would you want him for your captian