Official OGL Discussion Thread

[NichG]

At the same time, how do you avoid it? Even the basic trolly problem has to deal with it, otherwise there would just be one or two people on the trolly. But typically I see it with a half-dozen at least, and often more like 10 or more. The experiment has to significantly weigh the cost in lives so to balance the moral difference between action and inaction.

Which is one problem I have with it as it's usually presented. To me it's really just asking what your personal number is. If there's one person on the trolly, usually most people I think would opt for inaction and feel morally safe. Two people on the trolly? Well, debatable. At some point there's a number where it feels "obvious" you should steer it onto the lone rail-sleeper, but what number is that and why is there even a number at all?

Well again, the answer a person gives doesn't matter, its the process of thinking through it that matters. In that sense, the value of the trolley problem is that even if you think e.g. 'I'm a strict utilitarian', you might feel different about the choices and then you have to square that feeling with your explicitly stated moral philosophy. So e.g. in my case for example I would end up saying 'this highlights a fundamental flaw in human social organization, in that it incurs this bias towards inaction out of fear of being the one responsible - while that can serve the purpose of stability, in many cases it becomes an instinctual norm that is harmful and we should actively try to resist that moral instinct in those cases (for example, using different ethical standards for doctors treating patients who could not have been saved by normal means, or having standards for when someone is or isn't accountable even if their actions led to deaths specifically when inaction would also have led to deaths)'. Which isn't an answer to the trolley problem, but you could say its an overall position shaped by having been exposed to the trolley problem.

Other people may come up with other justifications or ways of making sense of what they feel, but its the way of making sense that is the important thing and not the personal number.