RE: What does morality mean to you?
September 16, 2015 at 10:39 am
(This post was last modified: September 16, 2015 at 10:52 am by MTL.)
(September 16, 2015 at 4:36 am)ignoramus Wrote:Quote:The trolley problem is a thought experiment in ethics. The general form of the problem is this: There is a runaway trolley barreling down the railway tracks. Ahead, on the tracks, there are five people tied up and unable to move. The trolley is headed straight for them. You are standing some distance off in the train yard, next to a lever. If you pull this lever, the trolley will switch to a different set of tracks. However, you notice that there is one person on the side track. 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 correct choice?
Rob, in the classic example above, where do you sit? How would you label the person who does nothing vs pull the lever?
Morality can be a tricky bastard!
eg: would you do nothing and keep a clear conscious (not labelling yourself a murderer, not your problem) or become a murderer with a positive net sum result for life?
What would the repercussions of intentionally killing someone (irrespective of the reasons) be on your mental health?
I personally cannot ever see myself ending a perfectly innocent person's life for any reason! Shoot me instead, I don't care!
What if the 5 people were all people in their 60s,
...and the 1 person on the side track was a toddler?
Or,
what if the 5 people were a bunch of 20-something drunk fratboys,
and the 1 person was Stephen Hawking?
Or,
What if the 5 people were Stephen Hawking, Salman Rushdie, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Malala Yousafzai,
(assuming all these people were still alive, of course)
and the one person was a toddler?
