The number of comments on this post dodging the question is frustrating. From a Utilitarian standpoint, pulling the lever is good. It doesn’t decrease the collective good but at least one person (you) benefits. I’m not too firm on Kantian ethics, but I can’t see how either action would consider the victims as a means or a goal in this constructed scenario. Accordingly, by Kantian ethics, it should be ethically neutral for you to pull the lever, though someone certainly is to blame for setting up this situation. However, I could also see a Kantian argument that one should never benefit from human suffering, even if one is not the cause of that suffering (based on the maxime of the action). Someone with a better understanding of Kant will have to resolve that one.
Just walk away.
Walk away, fuck it.
people’s deaths will be delayed by a few moments, and i get to have a couple of extra bucks. not one but two slightly lesser evils at the same time for the small cost of touching it.
Trolley goes over the bill, duh. It isn’t a lawn mower.
But it gets swayed into the coming gore pile so you have to touch the ick which means you are a desecrating the dead
“there are 2 RAM sticks of 64gb on the tracks…”
The lever has been pulled so hard by altman, it has snapped.
altman was actually the one who pulled the lever into climate apocalypse, after the oil barons.
The trolley would need to slow to get around that tight curve, if it could even do it without derailing. It has no space to get up any sort of speed on the other side. The low front bumper and tiny wheels means the trolley would catch on the first person, either pushing them all or simply stopping. Likely three or four of the people would survive. Pulling the lever is the right choice, money or no money.
The picture is not to scale and it has been stated they will all die. This question implies some kind of predetermined outcome.
As long as you donate the $100 you’ve actually done a net service (the people were slated to die anyway). For rescuing the money you receive a Certified Good Person certificate.
—Some ethical altruist probably
Disassemble the tracks so it doesn’t happen again. Determine who orchestrated this and consult others on their punishment. It’s not really complicated.
Can you actually be certain your understanding of the circumstance is correct? In any analogous real world scenario, the idea that your involvement or non-involvement has no actual effect on how much harm is done is going to be a lot more subject to error.
If you boycott Walmart, the suffering continues. The only way to end the suffering is to build a movement large enough to dismantle the rails.
If you boycott a local conservative business, the business will feel it, and the suffering may end (for a few people).
Even as drawn, pulling the lever might slow or even derail the trolley.
Hmmm… the original trolley problem but, contrary to your expectations, pulling the lever causes multi-track drifting that kills everyone. Are you responsible for all of the deaths, or only some?
Don’t commit evil, it’s a pretty simple concept
you are not committing any evil though. the trolley would run over the people anyway.
Not to some, after all there is money to be made.
