Ethics in Bricks Profile picture
Oct 3, 2018 15 tweets 10 min read Read on X
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'.

Read more here: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_p…. Image
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 #trolleyproblem Image
A variation of the trolley problem:

A brakeless trolley nears.
If you don't act, 5 people will die.
If you push a fat man from an overpass, he will die while stopping and saving the 5 on the trolley track.
What will you do?

#trolleyday #trolleyproblem Image
The minimalist trolley problem:

Trolley nears.
5 will die.
Pull lever: 1 dies.
What now?

#trolleyday #trolleyproblem Image
The trolley problem fallacy:
Perceiving the world as a collection of pullable levers.

#trolleyday #trolleyproblem Image
"Pulling the lever is murder."
- Your deontologist friend

#trolleyday #deontology #trolleyproblem Image
"I don't like #trolleyday at all."
- Big man on overpass Image
Beware of utilitarians near trolley overpasses today!

#trolleyday Image
Never miss Philippa Foot's birthday (#trolleyday) again:
order the 2019 @EthicsInBricks calendar here:
tinyurl.com/ethics77 Image
To celebrate #trolleyday 2018, Lisa pulled all levers she saw on her path home. Image
The dilemmas related to autonomous cars resemble moral choices from the trolley problem.

Should the brakeless autonomous car throw itself in the ravine, or should it kill Jeremy Bentham?

#trolleyday Image
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?

#trolleyday Image
If there are no passengers, the trolley from the original problem does not leave.

To what extent are passengers in the original trolley responsible for the fate of the people on the trolley track?

#trolleyday Image
"Narratives can make us understand. Photographs do something else; they haunt us"
- Susan Sontag (commenting on pictures shared with hashtag #trolleyday) Image
My final #trolleyday tweet:

Some have argued that the trolley problem is too "armchair-ish": too unrealistic & too amusing (see researchgate.net/publication/26…).

Should we replace the trolley problem in ethics education with another dilemma? Or do you have alternative suggestions? Image

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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
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