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Atheist Forums › Community › Philosophy v
#1 Thought experiment - "The Trolley Problem"

Poll: What will you choose to do?
This poll is closed.
I will choose to push the fat man onto the tracks.
28.57%
 2 28.57%
I will choose to do nothing.
71.43%
 5 71.43%
Total 7 vote(s) 100%
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#1 Thought experiment - "The Trolley Problem"
Athene Offline Donators
Do You See What I See?
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#15
RE: #1 Thought experiment - "The Trolley Problem"
May 18, 2016 at 4:11 pm (This post was last modified: May 18, 2016 at 4:26 pm by Athene.)
(May 18, 2016 at 2:30 pm)Excited Penguin Wrote: The situation seems pretty clear to me, it's a thought experiment and doesn't allow for any other conditions than those mentioned, so you couldn't "fuck it up" by always flipping the switch. The only reasonable thing to do is to save the five people, not be a coward and pretend like you wouldn't be killing them if you didn't do anything. And I'm not calling Thena a coward, I'm just answering the question in the OP, but I will admit I read the other replies first and it influenced my own.

Good thing you're not calling me a coward, because I certainly would be willing to do most things in order to save them.
I just wouldn't be willing to do anything.

In other presentations of this scenario there is no switch, and the decider is in the position of actually having to kill the fat man by shoving him with his/her own hands, making it more personal. I've read that the switch offers a level of detachment that seems to affect some people's answers to a degree.
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Atheist Forums › Community › Philosophy v
#1 Thought experiment - "The Trolley Problem"

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RE: #1 Thought experiment - "The Trolley Problem" - by Athene - May 18, 2016 at 4:11 pm

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