The Trolley Problem

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[galanoth17]

However, if there were no other options other than the ones given. So pushing fat guy to stop train is absolutely the only thing that can be done according to this problem(in real life you are never sure) and the 4 people will absolutely die if the train keeps moving (ex they won't move out of the way), then I'm absolutely for pushing the fat guy because in that case situation 1 and 2 are directly equivalent. No distinction. However, in real life, they aren't equivalent.

[galanoth17]

Continued. Also if you pushed the guy and saved people's lives, you would be in court for trial and people would start pointing out other ways in which you could've stopped the train and you didn't have to kill the fat guy. And you would feel sorry for not thinking of those ways at the spot and killing the fat guy.

[galanoth17]

Continued. Also if they pushed a guy they would be directly responsible for the guy's death and he will most definitely die, but if they just diverted the train they wouldn't be directly responsible since the other guy maybe would move out of the way of the moving train. It's a matter of probabilities and that's what stops people from doing it.

[galanoth17]

The reason most people won't push the guy over is because they are not 100% sure if pushing the guy over will stop the train for sure and save those 4 people. Even if they were 100% sure, they are not 100% sure whether there are better ways to stop the moving train or not. Pulling the lever to divert the train is a common thing to do in such a situation so even if there is one guy on the other track, they think it's OK to do it, but pushing someone in front of a moving train is not common.

[galanoth17]

This is the same scenerio as in the movie Watchmen where Ozymandias kills a few hundred thousands to bring peace to earth and save billions because a nuclear war was imminent. Most people thought that Ozymandias was wrong in that situation and supported rorschach. Me on the other hand supported Ozymandias and actually commended him for making a tough decision and living with the guild of killing those people for the rest of his life.

[JamesTCope225]

There is never ONLY two choices. There are an unlimited number of choices we can conceptually make.

[SaphirakaBjartskular]

Did anyone else have the thought that maybe you yourself is fat and there's the option that you could've thrown yourself over? or maybe you're too skinny and even if you intended to push the fat guy, you didn't have the strength to actually knock him over. there's never only 2 choices

[watermeloncranberry]

It's not immoral if there's nothing I can do. The logic about intentions is flawed. By your reasoning, it wouldn't matter what I do because it’s not my intention to kill anyone to begin with.

Well the way I determine morality is by trying to imagine what they would feel about my action, I think the one being sacrificed would feel a lot worse than the five being killed. Actually if the five people are mad at me for not pulling the switch, then they deserve to die to begin with.