Variations on the Trolley Problem

Do hypothetical professors experience pain?

Hey, didn’t Judy sing about that?..

Clang, clang, clang went the trolley
“Who, who, who?” went my head
No, no, no not so jolly
As I decided who soon would be dead

  • TWR
4 Likes

Aim for the nihilists every time. They’re expecting it.

2 Likes

Does the premise change if we’re talking about perfectly spherical philosophers in a vacuum?

2 Likes

Is unitary knowledge possible in your scenario?

Get back to me with an answer and I’ll solve your trolley problem once I know everything.

My Philosophy teacher once gave my class a very difficult ethical dilemma.

You and one person of the opposite sex are trapped in a cage. You are both virgins. Tomorrow you (both of you) will be sacrificed to the volcano, on the grounds that you are a virgin sacrifice. The other person makes it clear that they will not consent to having sex with you. Neither of you are MacGuyver. What do you do?

At least 80% of my class said they would do nothing.

There is an out of control trolley going down a hill. You are standing next to the switch. If it goes down one track, it will hit and most certainly kill one rail worker. The other track loops back up to the top of the hill, where the trolley will roll up to the crest and start rolling, out of control, back down to the switch, where you or someone else will have to decide to flip the switch to send it to kill the worker or back to the top of the hill.

The ethical dilemma: can you patent a perpetual motion train system?

3 Likes

depends, does the switch default back to the worker track each time?

Flagging prohibited? Ah, I see, you’ve upgraded the signal system to lights!

I would still keep flags as a backup system, though.

This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.