ethics & morality
the runaway trolley
five lives, one lever, and the small print of what you owe a stranger.
The runaway trolley is philosophy’s most famous machine for catching the mind in the act. Each scene asks for nothing but a choice. Make it honestly, not the answer you can defend at dinner, the one you would actually live with, and at the end we will tell you which moral theory you have been speaking in prose.
further reading
- the problem of abortion and the doctrine of the double effect original paper
- the trolley problem jstor
- doctrine of double effect stanford encyclopedia of philosophy