If you are driving a trolley and you see 5 people on the track ahead and your breaks don't work--the only thing you could do is let the train go straight of transfer it to a side track where there is one person, would you plow ahead or divert the train onto a track with 1 person on it?
We would all divert the train.
If the same situation is happening, but you are a bystander standing next to the transfer switch, would you pull the switch to divert the train.
We all would pull the switch.
If the same situation is happening and you are a bystander but do not know what would happen if you pulled the switch,
We all would do nothing.
If you are driving the trolley and you see five teens on the track smoking something, and the only way they could get onto the tracks would be to jump a fence and break the law, and on the other track you see a colleague, would you run over the five or the one.
Most of us would not divert the train and kill the 5 teens, and one would not decide, thereby killing the 5 teens.
If you are driving the trolley in the same situation and see five people you like on the track ahead and one you don't like on the other, would you divert the track?
We all would divert the track.
If you are in the same situation, but the five people have repeatedly picked on you and the one person you like, would you divert the train,
Most would reluctantly divert the trolley, but one of us wouldn't.
If you are on a bridge over the trolley and see the the conductor faint and the trolley will roll into the five people killing them, and next to you is a large man leaning over the railing looking at the event unfold, would you push him over the bridge onto the tracks and save the 5 people or do nothing?
Most of us would push the man over the edge.
The results differ based on the following elements: fewer people dying is better, even when we are not directly responsible for the events unfolding before us and even though we might not like those people; but one should not act if one doesn't know what will happen; breaking the law can lead to sever consequences while friendship is more important than strangers; finally most of us would indirectly kill a person who has nothing to do with the situation to save more people. In the last scenario, of pushing a person off a bridge, we consider whether a person not involved in the situation could be drawn into the situation or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment