Ethics

Context: View this video on the Trolley Car Problem:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02bx2

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The trolley car problem is a philosophical

thought experiment in which you must

decide how to respond to a runaway train.

It asks you to analyze two different

scenarios. In the first scenario, a runaway

train is speeding toward four people

standing on the track. You can stop the

train by switching tracks. However, there is

a man on the track. Would you switch the track knowing one man would die to save four? In the second scenario, the runaway

train is speeding toward four people on the

track. But this time, you cannot flip a

switch to change tracks. The only way to

save the lives of the four people is to push a large man off a bridge to stop the car.

Would you push him knowing he would die

to save the other four?

Write a 3-4 page paper in which you do the

following:

1) Discuss how an ethical egoist and a

utilitarian (choose either act or rule

utilitarianism) would respond?

2) State your own position on each

scenario. Would you reroute the train?

Would you push the man off the bridge?

What moral logic justifies your positions?

3) Compare your responses to that of

ethical egoism and utilitarianism.

4) Assess the strengths and weakness of

your positions in light of these two

consequentialist theories.