The Trolley Problem, What Would You Do? 🚂

The Trolley Problem

There is a runaway trolley chugging down some rail tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five individuals tied up and unable to move. The trolley is set on a path straight towards them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, by a lever. In the event that you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks.

Unfortunately, you see that there is one individual on the side track. You do not have the ability to operate the lever in a way that would cause the trolley to derail without loss of life (for instance, you cannot put the lever in a middle, so the trolley goes between the two sets of tracks, or pulling the lever after the front wheels pass the switch, but before the rear wheels do).

You have two options: ( (1) Do nothing, and the trolley kills 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 right decision, and why?

A Couple Of Thoughts

You should take choice 1) Doing nothing (not taking an interest) as many see it as the only sensible alternative. If you pull the lever, you are committing murder. If you let the five individuals die, you are not. If the five people do die, their death was caused by the individual who tied them up, not you.

Pulling the lever violates the principle of "the ends never justify the means." As such, you are seeing an intellectual end ("how about we spare lives") and utilising those ends to rationalise killing ("I should slaughter that individual since it will be better for everybody").

That thought process is imperfect and is consistent with teleological/consequentialist moral beliefs. It isn't shrewd to endow your intellect with the ability to rationalise harming others to fulfil your own beliefs, regardless of the possibility that your actions are for the sake of "others."

If you would like an excellent lesson on the trolley problem, you should watch a fantastic film named "Tempest of the Century." Stephen King wrote this movie, and it hooks you on from the very first minute and does not let you go.

Two minutes into it you'll be on the edge of your seat, and despite the fact that it's three hours in length it feels like thirty minutes since it's so damn good. Towards the end, they have a variant of the trolley issue, and they do a great job with it. I figure you will comprehend my point of view better once you see it.