The Trolley Dilemma

 Imagine the following:

Imagine you are standing beside some tram tracks. In the distance, you spot a runaway trolley hurtling down the tracks towards five workers who cannot hear it coming. Even if they do spot it, they won’t be able to move out of the way in time.

As this disaster looms, you glance down and see a lever connected to the tracks. You realise that if you pull the lever, the tram will be diverted down a second set of tracks away from the five unsuspecting workers.

However, down this side track is one lone worker, just as oblivious as his colleagues.

So, would you pull the lever, leading to one death but saving five?

This is the crux of the classic thought experiment known as the trolley dilemma, developed by philosopher Philippa Foot in 1967 and adapted by Judith Jarvis Thomson in 1985.

The trolley dilemma allows us to think through the consequences of an action and consider whether its moral value is determined solely by its outcome.

https://theconversation.com/the-trolley-dilemma-would-you-kill-one-person-to-save-five-57111


No Solution, No Problem

The answer, in my view, is that there is no definitive solution. Like most philosophical problems, the Trolley Problem is not designed to have a solution. It is, rather, intended to provoke thought, and create an intellectual discourse in which the difficulty of resolving moral dilemmas is appreciated, and our limitations as moral agents are recognized.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/116/Could_There_Be_A_Solution_To_The_Trolley_Problem


Would pulling the lever be an act of murder? After all, you had no part of the trolley heading towards the 5, but you would be responsible for the death of the 1.

Or is it immoral to let 5 die when you have the ability to save them by sacrificing the 1.

What about predestiny? Ordained destiny? 

What say YOU? 

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