[Serious] Ethics

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Part of the (expanded) version of the trolley problem is that you don't know anything about the people on the tracks.

Boru

Maybe I don't but everybody else does and they tell me after.

Future knowledge doesn't impact ethical actions. Because, you know, it can't.

Boru

[brewer]

Maybe I don't but everybody else does and they tell me after.

Future knowledge doesn't impact ethical actions. Because, you know, it can't.

Boru

No, but it makes my action not amount to a hill of beans.

[Jehanne]

I believe that we can presume that objective moral values and intrinsically good and evil acts exist, even if such do not (which would be difficult, if not impossible to prove), akin to the Peano axioms from mathematics.

[Belacqua]

(1) Consquentailism

(2) Deontology

(3) Virtue ethics.

Is there some reason why you have to choose one system, sign up for the team, and wear the team colors?

Surely they're all useful tools to think about ethical issues. 

Also, an answer to the trolley problem would be cool. I should kill the 1 to save the 5.

Would you throw yourself on the tracks to save 5?

[DLJ]

Do you have an ethical system? And, if so, what is it?
...
for those who are unaware, there are three main branches of normative ethics.

(1) Consequentialism

(2) Deontology

(3) Virtue ethics.
...

All three.

...
Also, an answer to the trolley problem would be cool. I should kill the 1 to save the 5.

Is the 1 a catholic priest? If so, no brainer.
Are all 5 catholic priests? If so, no brainer.

[Jehanne]

(1) Consquentailism

(2) Deontology

(3) Virtue ethics.

Is there some reason why you have to choose one system, sign up for the team, and wear the team colors?

Surely they're all useful tools to think about ethical issues. 

Also, an answer to the trolley problem would be cool. I should kill the 1 to save the 5.

Would you throw yourself on the tracks to save 5?

Yes, "no greater love than a man has than to lay down his life for his friends."

[polymath257]

Ethical principles: Think and Care

I guess that means I am closest to virtue ethics, but with a healthy dose of consequentialism thrown in.

There are several different trolley problems. I assume no other knowledge about the people involved.

1. Divert a train coming up to a split to 1 or 5: choose to save 5

2. Train headed to 5 but can be diverted to 1: probably save 5

3. Push 1 onto the tracks to save 5: This one bothers me. I probably would not push.

If further knowledge is available, the answers might differ. For example, I would push a mega-church preacher with no qualms.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Is there some reason why you have to choose one system, sign up for the team, and wear the team colors?

Surely they're all useful tools to think about ethical issues. 


Would you throw yourself on the tracks to save 5?

Yes, "no greater love than a man has than to lay down his life for his friends."

And the verse immediately following that one: ‘Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.’

Jesus had some funny notions about love and friendship. Certainly not a consequentialist.

Boru

[Angrboda]

I suspect that deontology is a form of consequentialism. We follow the rule regardless because on average that will yield the best consequences.

I used to have strong opinions about ethics. Not anymore. I vacillate between error theory and moral realism in my beliefs, but I'm agnostic about most of ethics.

[The Grand Nudger]

Don't put that fork in the light socket! Deontology

because it would kill you - consequentialism
and that's dumb as a box of rocks - virtue ethics