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Trolley Problem: Ethical Dilemma Explained

The trolley problem presents an ethical dilemma where a runaway trolley is barreling towards five people who cannot move. You can flip a lever to divert the trolley onto a side track where one person is located, killing them but saving the five others. Most surveys found flipping the lever as the better option, consistent with utilitarian ethics of maximizing well-being for the greatest number. However, changing the scenario to having to push a large man onto the tracks to stop the trolley finds only 10% willing, revealing our instincts see causing death differently than allowing it, even if the utilitarian calculus is the same. This dilemma highlights that ethics involves more than logical weighing and reveals psychological factors in our moral judgments.

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308 views1 page

Trolley Problem: Ethical Dilemma Explained

The trolley problem presents an ethical dilemma where a runaway trolley is barreling towards five people who cannot move. You can flip a lever to divert the trolley onto a side track where one person is located, killing them but saving the five others. Most surveys found flipping the lever as the better option, consistent with utilitarian ethics of maximizing well-being for the greatest number. However, changing the scenario to having to push a large man onto the tracks to stop the trolley finds only 10% willing, revealing our instincts see causing death differently than allowing it, even if the utilitarian calculus is the same. This dilemma highlights that ethics involves more than logical weighing and reveals psychological factors in our moral judgments.

Uploaded by

OscarLopezCruz
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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“The Trolley Problem”

There is a runaway trolley barreling down the tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five
people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are
standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley
will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the
side track. You have two options:
1. Do nothing and allow the trolley to kill the five people on the main track.
2. Pull the lever, diverting the trolley onto the side track where it will kill one person.
Which is the most ethical option? Or, more simply: What is the right thing to do?
This is the trolley problem a version of an ethical dilemma that philosopher Philippa Foot
introduces in 1967. Its popular because it forces us to think about how to choose if there
are no good choices.
There were many surveys in which 90% of the respondents said that its okay to pull the
lever. Even virtual simulations of the dilemma founded that the option to kill just one person
was better.
These judgments are consistent with the philosophical principle of utilitarianism which
argues that the morally correct decision is the one that maximizes well-being for the
greatest number of people.
But People not always take the utilitarian view, which we can see by changing the trolley
problem a bit
This time, you're standing on a bridge over the track as the runaway trolley approaches.
Now there’s no second track, but there is a very large man on the bridge next to you, if you
push him over, his body will stop the trolley saving the five people.
To utilitarian’s is the same thing: loose one life to save five
But in this case, only about 10% of people say that is OK to throw the man onto the tracks.
Our instincts tell us that causing someone’s death is different than allowing them to die as
collateral damage. It just feels wrong for reasons that are hard to explain.
This intersection between ethics and psychology is what it is so interesting about this
problem.
This dilemma reveals that what we think is right or wrong other than a logical weighing of
the pros and cons.
I would like to end this presentation asking you: Which option will you choose?

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