"Suppose that there is a trolley that is headed toward five people tied to the tracks ahead. There is no switch, but there is a bridge with you and someone else on it. But in this case, this is no wimpy trolley; a mere man in its way will not significantly affect its movement; it will easily crush flesh and bone. However, in this case, both you and the other person are in cars on the bridge. You know that a car is enough to stop the trolley, and you would like to drive yours off the bridge and stop the trolley, but the other car is in the way of you doing that, so you cannot simply drive off the bridge. You can, however, use your car to ram the other car, which will knock it off the bridge and onto the tracks, and thus stop the trolley from running over the five people. For stopping the trolley, it makes no difference whether someone is in the car or not; it is the car, and the car by itself, that will stop the trolley. But the other person is in the other car and will die if you push his car off the bridge, but you must act immediately, or the trolley will be past the bridge, so you do not have time to talk with the other driver or pull him out of his car; you either ram his car immediately, knocking it in the way of the trolley, or the trolley goes by and kills the five people. What should you do? Just in case these details matter to you, I will now provide three variants:
Pyrrho on the Trolley Problem
Pyrrho on the Trolley Problem
Pyrrho on the Trolley Problem
"Suppose that there is a trolley that is headed toward five people tied to the tracks ahead. There is no switch, but there is a bridge with you and someone else on it. But in this case, this is no wimpy trolley; a mere man in its way will not significantly affect its movement; it will easily crush flesh and bone. However, in this case, both you and the other person are in cars on the bridge. You know that a car is enough to stop the trolley, and you would like to drive yours off the bridge and stop the trolley, but the other car is in the way of you doing that, so you cannot simply drive off the bridge. You can, however, use your car to ram the other car, which will knock it off the bridge and onto the tracks, and thus stop the trolley from running over the five people. For stopping the trolley, it makes no difference whether someone is in the car or not; it is the car, and the car by itself, that will stop the trolley. But the other person is in the other car and will die if you push his car off the bridge, but you must act immediately, or the trolley will be past the bridge, so you do not have time to talk with the other driver or pull him out of his car; you either ram his car immediately, knocking it in the way of the trolley, or the trolley goes by and kills the five people. What should you do? Just in case these details matter to you, I will now provide three variants: