Trolley problem
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The Trolley Problem is a thought experiment based an ethical dilemma described in its modern format by Philippa Foot in 1967. The problem can be described as follows:
- Assume there is a runaway trolley moving down the tracks where five people have been tied down. You are standing at a switch that can be pulled which will divert the trolley away from the five people, but one person is tied to the other track. If you pull the switch, one person will be killed, if you do nothing, five people will be killed. Which is more ethical, to pull the switch or not?
According to surveys, about 90% of people would pull the switch and kill the one person to save the five. There are many variations on this problem which try to determine how people think about this internally.
Personally, I would not throw the switch because I think it's wrong to kill an innocent person in order to save the lives of five others who would have died anyway.
Links
- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem - Wikipedia.
- youtube.com/watch?v=1sl5KJ69qiA - Testing the trolley problem in real life.
