Discussion Trolley Dilemma

[Politecat]

How would you answer the age old question? Push the lever and kill one person, or not push it and kill 5 people

My answer: Involuntaryism is an option, since no matter what one person will still die, by involving yourself in the situation, you, yourself are playing god and have control over the lives of 6 people. So by not acting you have shown that you are capable of reacting and thinking about the situation .

 

[Firecaste]

Ask whether or not The lone guy would pay more than the other 5 for me to not push it.

 

[LiveSlowDieFast]

I think if I had to go make a decision based on the number of people alone, I probably would push the lever. I think for an individual it would be immoral not to. On the other hand, if the decision were to be made by a state I would be opposed to it, as it gives the state too much power to decide over individual lives.

Edit: That being said so, I an actual real life situation like this, I would understand whatever decision a person might end up making.

I also love all the variations/memes this picture spawned

 

[Armadillo]

The short answer for me would be: I'd minimize suffering. Assuming all of 6 people want to live by killing one and saving 5 you choose to do the least damage.

Or the opposite: if you want to maximize suffering you don't pull the lever.

From a moral relativistic point of view both actions (well, action and inaction in this case) are acceptable for the individual.

 

[NumbItAll]

i would join them on the tracks

 

[Angst Filled Fuck Up]

i would join them on the tracks

I guess it's like the San Francisco version of catching the bus.

 

[Redt2go]

In failing to act your still making a decision

 

[Sanguinius]

Huh... Back in school I've done a project about this and as far as I remember, there are an utilitaristic and a deontologistic way to solve it. The utilitaristic way says, you have to minimize the suffering. Deontologism says you may follow your ideology and stay true to yourself. So if you say, you never want to kill someone, no matter what happens, you would be a Deontolgist.
I'm strongly utilitaristic. And as a matter of fact, we all have to solve the trolley project every single day.

As a suicidal Person, one side there are the people who love you, on the other side you are. The trolley will hurt you if you don't pull the lever. If you do, it'll hurt your loved ones.
As every beeing, someone has to make the sacrifice. Either you have to sacrifice yourself or you sacrifice thousands of other beings - the ones you eat the meat of, the ones you crunch accidentaly under your feet...

I'm pro choice. But I think we have to make our choices careful...

 

[killing me softly]

i was just listening to a radiolab episode about this! it talked talked about different variations (such as pushing the one to save the 5) and how that impacts people's decisions
https://www.wbez.org/shows/radiolab/driverless-dilemma/0c5d3431-1445-4ea6-867f-6822a327f3fd