/lit/ - Literature

DICKS

Flipping the switch makes you a murderer.

>>5518030
Start with the Greeks.

Principle of double effect

MULTI-TRACK DRIFTING

>>5518111
Only true answer.
http://youtu.be/DWQMOUmb3Ng

What about now, /lit/?

>>5518030
is this utilitarianism?

I'm guessing that most serious ethical systems say that it is better to flip the switch and kill the one person.

However, if I didn't tie those people up to begin with, and just came upon the switch at that crucial moment, could I say that the fact that I didn't have any part in the creation of the situation means that I killed nobody if I did not flip the switch, whereas if I did, I would had killed one person?

>>5518257
Sort of. We are doing this in my Philosophy class. It's funny seeing how many people are bad at philosophy. By the way the correct answer is to nothing :^)

>>5518201

Lie down on the track myself and embrace sweet release.

>>5518257
It's supposed to highlight the difference between Utilitarianism and Deontology. A Utilitarian would pull the lever, a Deontologist wouldn't. The main question here is why.

>>5518201
pretty obvious choice considering the cows status as noblest in the animal kingdom

>>5518457
Plenty of deontologists would pull the lever. Only the most naive variants of deontology are incapable of coming up with an argument for pulling the lever.

>viewing all people as morally equal

Tip top lel
If the 3 people tied up were Mexican immigrants and the one was a 6th generation Anglo of fitting breed and station, id let the Mexicans die

Consider the following:

>>5518532

>>5518549


woah dude youre blowing my mind

>>5518450
>not using superior version

>>5518030
Denise, standing by a set of points and in a position to divert the trolley onto a siding, thereby saving the lives of five people trapped on the main line ahead. Unfortunately there is a man trapped on the siding. But since he is only one, outnumbered by the five people trapped on the main track, most people agree that it is morally permissible, if not obligatory, for Denise to throw the switch and save the five by killing the one.
Elaborations of the thought experiment present a series of increasingly teasing moral conundrums.
Hauser contrasts the dilemmas faced by hypothetical individuals called Ned and Oscar. Ned is standing by the railway track. Unlike Denise, who could divert the trolley onto a siding, Ned’s switch diverts it onto a side loop which joins the main track again just before the five people. Simply switching the points doesn’t help: the trolley will plough into the five anyway when the diversion rejoins the main track. However, as it happens, there is an extremely fat man on the diversionary track who is heavy enough to stop the trolley. Should Ned change the points and divert the train? Most people’s intuition is that he should not.

Oscar’s situation is identical to Ned’s, except that there is a large iron weight on the diversionary loop of track, heavy enough to stop the trolley. Clearly Oscar should have no problem deciding to pull the points and divert the trolley. Except that there happens to be a hiker walking in front of the iron weight. He will certainly be killed if Oscar pulls the switch, just as surely as Ned’s fat man. The difference is that Oscar’s hiker is not being used to stop the trolley: he is collateral damage, as in Denise’s dilemma.

-- from The God Delusion

obligatory

>>5518950
>>5518606
>>5518201
I think I might start a folder for these

>>5518961
>doesn't have all his 4chan pictures with random-number filenames in a single folder
pleb detected

>>5518991
I do at the moment, other than my bane section of courshe

>>5518174
holy fuck was that real

>>5518489
Sup India

>>5519161
Why do you want to fuck up my life?

>>5519161
Clones are evil, the choice is clear.

>>5519199
lol