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Moral

Harvey Gilbert M. Abeleda discusses the trolley problem, a moral dilemma involving a runaway trolley barreling down railway tracks. There are two scenarios presented: In the first scenario, the dilemma is whether to flip a switch to divert the trolley onto a side track where it will kill one person instead of five. In the second scenario, the dilemma is whether to push a large man onto the tracks to stop the trolley, killing him but saving the five. While most people choose to sacrifice one to save five in the first scenario, they hesitate in the second scenario, though the outcomes are the same.

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Raven Calde
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110 views1 page

Moral

Harvey Gilbert M. Abeleda discusses the trolley problem, a moral dilemma involving a runaway trolley barreling down railway tracks. There are two scenarios presented: In the first scenario, the dilemma is whether to flip a switch to divert the trolley onto a side track where it will kill one person instead of five. In the second scenario, the dilemma is whether to push a large man onto the tracks to stop the trolley, killing him but saving the five. While most people choose to sacrifice one to save five in the first scenario, they hesitate in the second scenario, though the outcomes are the same.

Uploaded by

Raven Calde
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Name: Abeleda, Harvey Gilbert M.

Section: Osaka

Moral Dilemma

The Trolley Problem

Situation 1: There is a trolley coming down the tracks and ahead, there are five people tied to
the tracks and are unable to move. The trolley will continue coming and will kill the five people.
There is nothing you can do to rescue the five people EXCEPT that there is a lever. If you pull
the lever, the train will be directed to another track, which has ONE person tied to it. You have
two choices:
(a) Do nothing and the five people will die
(b) Or pull the lever and save the five people, but that one person will die.

Did you make your choice? Well then consider this similar situation:

Situation 2: There is a trolley coming down the tracks and ahead, there are five people tied to
the tracks and are unable to move. The trolley will continue coming and will kill the five people.
However, in this situation, you are standing on a bridge above the train tracks and you can see
the train coming. There is a man standing next to you, who is so enormous and heavy that if he
places himself in front of the oncoming train, it will hit and kill him but the train will stop. So
you have two choices.
(a) Do nothing and the five people will die.
(b) Push the big guy down the bridge. He will be killed but will stop the trolley and save the five
people.

The ironic part about this problem is that while most people would choose the option (b) for the
first situation, they will choose option (a) for the second situation, when technically, in both
situations, you are sacrificing one man to save the lives of five people.

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