An old moral dilemma - The Trolley problem

Mmmno, that's not how it works. If I think about either option, then in my mind I've considered what I would think or what I would gothrough with either option. IF I did nothing, then yes, the punishment for me would be nothing. However...that doesn't mean that I wouldn't feel immensely guilty. I would go through eery day of my life knowing full wel that I COULD have saved 5 people, directly, with minimal effort, but I didn't. That would wrack me for the rest of my life.



Depends. Are you accountable? Is it your fault that the truck hit the city? Could you have simply pushed a button and cause it to kill your home and loved ones instead? Nothing should happen to the person who does nothing, because...they didn't do anything. However, they WILL feel guilty, unless they're a sociopath.



Except in the matter of personal freedoms. Those can't be infringed upon no matter how many people in the country want t omake laws to do so.

I agree with you in many cases.. i just like to post the other side of the argument (mostly) to get people to explain and defend their position when confronted.. anyway…

to be honest i cant think of any way in which a bystander who (even directly) changed one wrong deed(aka train carnage) in to another could be charged, assuming that wrong deed was unavoidable.

regarding the person who does nothing… well, here is another thought experiment. Imagine you are trying to cross from country A to country B. in order to do so, you have to travel through a village. in the village, at the time of your crossing, a mass shooting was organised (lets assume that the people were randomly picked) now you are given the privilige as a visitor to prevent this mass massacre by taking a rifle and shooting only one person. however if you decide not to shoot anybody, you indirectly allow (lets say around 100) people to be shot on the spot.

The situation is different yet similar, in as much as you can either indirectly kill many people, or directly kill one person.

i'm not saing that i know the right answer, i just know that if it was me, i'd probably end up killing one person (hopefully a volunteer).

I don't like this dilemma.
In 5 randoms vs love nearly everyone will kill the random people assuming they can be totally anonymous.
In 5 family members vs love most will kill their love unless they have very bad relation with their family (Which can be very common at some places) or believe that nothing could ever replace their current gf/bf (Hi, that's me).
Here we have 5 somewhat related people, god knows how related and you also have the option of simply doing nothing which is a very very very common outcome when faced with a hard decision. I feel that people get too different images to draw any general conclusions about people.

I'll agree on this. In my case, it's not that I have bad relations with non-immediate family, it's just that I have NO relations with them. I barely even know any of them. So this dilemma, in this particular incarnation, doesn't even register as remotely "wrong" anywhere in my brain. I'd have no issues "doing nothing".

Do nothing. I cant imagine having a true love but I don't exactly get along with my family. What's a more likely dilemma for me is instead of true love you put my doujin collection on the tracks.

Well i would do nothing, i am not about to save the only constant headache i have by sacrificing the one damn thing that took so long to find.

And here i was hoping for a button to make the thing go faster~

I would probably do nothing and save my love. I know I would just regret it forever if I didn't save her...

Put the track on my loved one and go move her off the track.

too many confounding variables:
1. who are they? how old are they? etc.
2. what are the conditions of the world in? post-apocalyptic world or "normal"
3. eh.... fuck it

my gut and moral compass would tell me let the girl die and save the five. but i got too many damn people that are my cousins, half-bro/sis, aunts, cousins and shit. that and apparently my grandmother/father lost their families when escaping from china and they were 6 of 7 each. so fuck em. i'll take my girl.

Now considering that everything was destructible. blow the tracks with c4 or of the like. and that sets off the red emergency light. conductor starts brake, cuts off rear compartments. assistants start all compartments emergency brakes. conductor jumps off. only first one gets destroyed.

I would send the train towards my true love, and I would lay on the tracks holding her hand, looking into her eyes, waiting for impending death with a half smile.

I would slay my loved one. Demand that my family members give me money to buy a hooker for fem/fem action.
Then move to a different city and start over.

All of you people are heartless. D;

I would do nothing because I don´t get along with any of my relatives.

There are too many unanswered questions, yes they are specific, and try and push the question aside, but they still count to some degree. (The majority of the ones being already mentioned in previous posts)

In the end morally one must always try and preserve life, and the greater good and such. Even if that means sacrificing something that you may see as greater importance to you, but you know it's not in the greater aspect.

I to would try and dodge the question, for the main reason that I would actually be afraid of my answer. Question like these really can make you question your own moral, that is, if you take the time to think. ;)

depends who the family members are tbh...

But it would really depend.. I don't know what i'd do...

I feel like I should go my loved one, and save the other five, but then I'd be guilt ridden, and would probably have trouble finding another person... at the same time I feel if I were to save my loved one, I would be guilt ridden about that, and hate myself for it...

I see no possible way to come out of this without seeming like a bastard... If i were to save my loved one, my family would probably hate me... but if i saved my relatives, my loved ones family might hate me.. but then again, knowing the circumstances, they might say it was a good decision.. I don't know... Gah ><

Depending on the relatives, i'd probably save loved one.

could I sacrifice myself instead?

I will do nothing.... seriously
Morals is just some kind of chain people used to separate human being, with another uncivilized being in "normal" situation.
but when situation tend to be "abnormal" morals doesn't means a fuck!
perfect example of this is those psychological description of castaway, who later, will become an uncivilized barbarians if left alone in despair for long time.
well assuming there is a "true love" then there won't be any "second true love" will it? since true love referring to the only person in The World you love.

I'd stick some hefty rocks on the track and derail the thing, which results in:

-Hypothetical "True Love" and relatives being safe.

-Death/injury of a few dozen of complete strangers whom I couldn't give less of a shit about.