My favorite Trolley Problem involves making the track changer decide between killing one person, or chosing a path where another track changer waits to decide if he should kill one person or five. Of course, this goes on and on until we kill 10, 15, 20 or more!
- Build a roundabout and everyone dies.
- Kant (duty) vs. Bentham (common good).
- Or pick up the one person and add him to the five, then kill them all (a two-year old made this choice).
Everything comes down to the Tragedy of the Commons; do we trust others to make sure we are not the only one on the track?
Probably not.
© 2016 – 2018, Michael Shawn Sommermeyer. All rights reserved.
