Happy #trolleyday!
Today's the birthday of Philippa Foot, the mother of one of the best known ethical dilemmas of our time: the 'trolley problem'.
The original trolley problem:
A brakeless trolley nears.
If you don't act, 5 people will die.
If you change its track by pulling the lever, only 1 will die.
What will you do?
#trolleyday
"You can also commit injustice by doing nothing."
- Marcus Aurelius #trolleyday
A variation of the trolley problem:
5 people die if they don't receive a different vital organ.
1 healthy person enters with all 5 vital organs functioning.
Is it better to save the 5 by killing the 1?
A trolley nears.
No one is in danger.
You are an ethics teacher.
Should you put people on the trolley tracks in order to keep your job?
The trolley problem fallacy:
Perceiving the world as a collection of pullable levers.
#trolleyday
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is an approaching trolley.
#trolleyday
Tip for today:
Don't stand to close to utilitarians on a trolley overpass.
#trolleyday
Applied version of the trolley problem:
You can divert a runaway trolley and save the planet and all life on it, or you could continue focusing on fossil fuels, do some green washing and make a profit in the short term.
On this festive #trolleyday, a shout out to all the brave trolley track workers out there.
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