(January 24, 2018 at 3:44 pm)Thena323 Wrote:(January 24, 2018 at 3:03 pm)RoadRunner79 Wrote: Wow.... this is about the best version of the problem, that I have seen. I think someone mentioned, that in a common form of the dilemma, one is pushing some fat guy onto the tracks. And at this point, I was fairly confident in my answer... No you can't do that. Changing it to a switch somehow makes it different. But why?
To my mind, there's no essential difference between pushing the fat man onto the tracks and flipping the switch. The presence of the switch in the dilemma simply serves to allow for physical (and emotional) distance in completing the same action.
The idea that it makes the action more ethical/moral is little more than a comforting trick of the mind, IMO; An illusion.
I think it's a case of the fat man hypothetical question not making much sense in the real world. The switch question makes more sense in the real world and it would be the least evil of the two things to do.
If you're just thinking of it like a computer game/programmed hypothetical scenario, as you are asked to do, then it really makes no difference. It's just a numbers game. But I think people would have a natural tendency to think of it in real world terms.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
