I would derail the trolley! Okay, there were thirty people on the trolley, all of whom died. But gosh darn it, I stopped the trolley. (Paraphrasing every public health officer over the last two years...)
This is my problem with the academic sphere of philosophy in general. In principle, I understand the need to eliminate extraneous variables to try to explore a fundamental concept- you can "but what about" anything to death if you don't stipulate to any conditions in a thought exercise.
But it never, ever ends up creating practical value. Of COURSE in real life the better thing is to find the solution where no one gets run over or put on the tracks in the first place.
Yup. They're exercises with limited use, but even here we can at least see different thoughts emerge... Kinda like how your tribe is going to behave once you've led it out the dessert.
I find hobbesian competition for survival a lot more honest than whatever the fuck is going on now.
You try to kill me and pull the lever, I kill you because me and mine are on the other track. It's simple and fair and has nothing to do with morals.
I just don't like it when people delude themselves into thinking their position at the lever make them "the good guy" and me "the bad guy."
No one wants to get run over by a trolley, and fuck whoever wants to run you over.
Game on.
How has nobody pasted this link in yet?
https://youtu.be/lDnO4nDA3kM
Hahahaha! I watched that but forgot all about it!
I would derail the trolley! Okay, there were thirty people on the trolley, all of whom died. But gosh darn it, I stopped the trolley. (Paraphrasing every public health officer over the last two years...)
This is my problem with the academic sphere of philosophy in general. In principle, I understand the need to eliminate extraneous variables to try to explore a fundamental concept- you can "but what about" anything to death if you don't stipulate to any conditions in a thought exercise.
But it never, ever ends up creating practical value. Of COURSE in real life the better thing is to find the solution where no one gets run over or put on the tracks in the first place.
Yup. They're exercises with limited use, but even here we can at least see different thoughts emerge... Kinda like how your tribe is going to behave once you've led it out the dessert.