The rails are essential, not just the overhead wires which would enable the trolley (bus) to swerve left and right. Given a railbound trolley, let's press on.
The basic form of the problem is that something goes wrong (brakes fail, whatever) and the trolley careers out of control down the tracks. Issue is that, on its current course, it's going to hit five people who have been forced by the crowd (by sheer numbers present at the stop, again whatever) onto the tracks.
However, there is a switching point ahead which can divert the trolley onto some sidetracks ... this switching point is easily operated by you, who are standing nearby. Plus you glance and see the dilemma almost instantly.
a. If you do nothing, the trolley careers into those five people and who knows which other members of the crowd at the stop. Assume there is almost no time for them to jump out of the way.
b. If you act swiftly and divert the trolley, you save untold death and maiming, but an elderly man has stumbled on the sidetrack and is on his knees, getting his strength back. He's near-deaf and facing away, down the sidetrack.
The dilemma is pretty clear ... let's call that the first dilemma.
In the second dilemma, one of those five is your child.
In the third dilemma, the old man is your father.
In the fourth dilemma, there are no relations but you see your sworn enemy, the enemy of the people in fact, skulking in among the five.
Ah. Wonderful Melbourne (Aus) trams. Not fake things looking like they normally travel at speeds where the streamlining mattered. Yes, I am thinking of Embra's money black hole.
ReplyDeleteColour me cynical.
Twisted Root
ReplyDeleteAlmost all situational ethics problems have some point to illustrate to serve a particular agenda. The only way to win is to not play. Problem solved.
JH: I posted, then promptly fell asleep, which was pretty useless (to post that late in the first place). It’s now 0124 GMT and I’m awake for some reason, so might as well address the dilemma.
ReplyDeleteTwisted Root’s solution is valid, so is playing, on the understanding that there are way too many real situational variables - for example, in the tram picture, given that slope, does “out of control” mean driver slumped and jammed the controls, does it mean he had a clot shot arrest, does it mean … etc.?
Were the tram to be close, could I see through the window or would sunlight reflect? If the tram were doing 5 mph, could I leap onto that front bumper straight after diverting, running diagonally with the tram, shouting to the crowd around the sidetrack to grab the old man? And what about others about to cross, strewn along that path? How far along was the old man anyway? A hundred yards? Two hundred?
Once these variables keep piling in, e.g. am I young enough to even do this, then Twisted Root’s solution increasingly becomes the least bad.
Twisted Root
DeleteYou highlight just a tiny fraction of possible practical variables. What about legal? If you divert the trolley is it manslaughter? What about variables related to values?
Why is it my problem to intervene to save five people and kill one? The greater good and the needs of the many do not outweigh the needs of the few. I hope anyone who does believe this meets five cannibals on the way home tonight. They might just be the five people I saved earlier by killing a harmless old man. And what are needs anyway? Moderns are all about wants and addictions which they conflate with needs. Something is already terribly wrong with your civilisation if these type of situations cropped up in real life. To ponder these problems is an interesting occasional diversion but nothing more.
JH: Not only can I not put up an adequate rebuttal but we then get into the consequences of our own non-intervention in the longer term.
DeleteJH: Oft quoted by me, that Agatha C quote of old Mr. Satterthwaite to a suicidal woman:
ReplyDelete“You say your life is your own,” went on Mr Satterthwaite to her, “But can you dare to ignore the chance that you are taking part in a gigantic drama under the orders of a Divine Producer? You, as you, may not matter to anyone in the world but you as a person in a particular place and a particular context may matter unimaginably.”