Kill the Fat Man?
23Feb10
Here’s an interesting thought experiment from TPM. It’s essentially a variation on Philipa Foot’s well-known ‘trolley experiment’. Give it a go and see how consistent your morals are…
Filed under: Applied Ethics, Deontology, Ethics, Normative Ethics, Utilitarianism | 3 Comments
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Philosophy Classics- Philosophy Bites
- NIck Bostrom on the Status Quo Bias
- Galen Strawson on Panpsychism
- Peter Singer on Life and Death Decision-Making (originally on Bioethics Bites)
- Philip Pettit on Republicanism
- Jeff McMahan on Moral Status (originally on Bioethics Bites)
- Adrian Moore on Philosophy and Its History
- Julian Savulescu on Designer Babies (originally on Bioethics Bites)
- Neil Levy on Moral Responsibility and Consciousness
- Ronald Dworkin on the Unity of Value
- Guy Longworth on J.L. Austin and Ordinary Language
Hmm…yet another philisophical puzzle for me to ponder on. If I could ask, how would I be physically able to lift and throw the fat man over the bridge? Surely the logic behind this thought-provoking scenario undermines question itself? But lets just suspend our disbelief for a moment, and suppose that I am capable of grabbing a heavily obese individual and hurling him off a great height- then yes, if its GUARANTEED to save the helpless victims, thats probably what I would would do.
It appears there are several grammatical errors in the above post. Apologies.
“undermines THE question itself”
repetition of the word “would” on the final line.
Ahh, if you read the thought experiement carefully Marty (the person who you are) is able to push the fat man, so the thought experiement can work for people of all sizes and builds and does not require the reader to be a body builder. I will not pass comment on the grammatical errors.