StonedPhilosopher
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Today was my first day of Senior year, and in "Ethics in the Modern World" there was a question on the board--mentioned in the thread title--that was something along these lines:
This is what I jotted down in my notebook:
The teacher tallied up everyone's answers and found that >80% of the ~20 kids made the same choice. We didn't have any discussion on what each choice would entail besides what was on the board (each class on the first day is 15 minutes long to just sort of get acquainted with it, so it was kind of justified).
Anyway, why would anyone choose the other option? Because by pulling the lever, you'd be sort of committing murder by willingly killing someone who would've originally lived? But if you didn't pull the lever, you'd be willingly killing five people by not intervening.
Thoughts?
There's a runaway train, and further down the tracks there are five people tied up who can't free themselves. You can pull a lever which will make the train take an alternate path, but there is someone on the alternate path. Do you pull the lever or not?
This is what I jotted down in my notebook:
Pull the lever; without further info, one death is objectively less tragic than five deaths.
The teacher tallied up everyone's answers and found that >80% of the ~20 kids made the same choice. We didn't have any discussion on what each choice would entail besides what was on the board (each class on the first day is 15 minutes long to just sort of get acquainted with it, so it was kind of justified).
Anyway, why would anyone choose the other option? Because by pulling the lever, you'd be sort of committing murder by willingly killing someone who would've originally lived? But if you didn't pull the lever, you'd be willingly killing five people by not intervening.
Thoughts?