• MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      I’m always sad when I see this stuff. I know it’s all jokes and whatnot, but the entire meme has been born out of a fundamental misunderstanding of the dilemma that the trolley problem is supposed to represent.

      The question isn’t, and has never been whether you throw the switch or not. The question is that if you throw the switch, are you responsible for killing the one, or conversely, if you do nothing, are you responsible for killing the others?

      Whether you throw the switch or not is immaterial to the point. Kill one or kill four (or whatever) it doesn’t matter. You didn’t create that scenario, so by your inaction several people died, are you responsible for their deaths, considering you never put them in that position? Or are you exempt of blame since you basically chose to be an onlooker?

      I don’t really blame anyone for not getting it, I sure didn’t for a really long time until my friend rephrased the same dilemma in a different way (and omitted the trolley): you go to lunch and have a delicious subway sandwich, but you were not very hungry so you only are half. On your travels from Subway to wherever, you pass by a homeless person begging for food. If you decide to ignore them and keep your food for yourself for later, and that person dies of starvation later that same day because of it, are you responsible for their death?

      • SwingingTheLamp@midwest.socialEnglish
        0·
        8 months ago

        In addition to philosophical questions, the Trolley Problem is also a good tool in psychology to study human ethical reasoning. It turns out that people’s intuitive responses vary quite a lot based on details that seem like they shouldn’t make a difference. If I’m remembering correctly, I believe that a lot more people say that they would divert the trolley if they imagine that they were observing the situation from a gantry high above the tracks, rather than in close proximity to the person who would be killed thereby.

        • chrizzly@feddit.de
          0·
          8 months ago

          For anyone interested, there is a nice video series on these comics by “CosmicSkeptic” on Youtube. He discusses some of the memes, but brings them nicely into a philosophical context at the same time.

  • lugal@lemmy.ml
    0·
    8 months ago

    There’s an old Talaxian expression: “When the road before you splits in two, take the third path.”

  • samus12345@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    Or the trolley potentially carrying dozens of people falls over, killing and injuring more people than would have been otherwise.

      • tryptaminev 🇵🇸 🇺🇦 🇪🇺@feddit.de
        0·
        8 months ago

        A train wagon easily weights 20 tonnes and more. If it goes just at 50 kph, it has an impulse of 278.000 kg*m/s. Respectively 278.000 Ns. According to some googling human bones tend to break at around a force of 4.000 N.

        Realistically the train is just going to flatten whatever flesh and bones are between the wheel and tracks.