The Trolley problem - WWYD

To pull or not to pull. An exercise in ethics.

Friends and I were discussing this years ago. One of our mutual friends dumped her bf over his feelings -- which we all felt was a bit odd and interesting to boot. They never got back together. She was just that disgusted with his response.

What would you do? Why?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

cthia wrote:To pull or not to pull. An exercise in ethics.

Friends and I were discussing this years ago. One of our mutual friends dumped her bf over his feelings -- which we all felt was a bit odd and interesting to boot. They never got back together. She was just that disgusted with his response.

What would you do? Why?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

It's unclear whether you're inviting discussion about the trolley problem or dumping a relationship over a difference of opinions.

If it's the latter, some context might be useful. I don't know whether the boyfriend was a homidical maniac who would find some way to kill all six people, for example.

If it's the former, I'd say in such a scenario when you know nothing about the six possible victims, the correct decision is to switch the tracks and take only one life.

When you do know some or all of the people on the tracks, it becomes an infinitely complex situation - you might feel compelled to pass judgement. What if the one person was your spouse and the other five were death-row criminals?

munroburton wrote:

cthia wrote:To pull or not to pull. An exercise in ethics.

Friends and I were discussing this years ago. One of our mutual friends dumped her bf over his feelings -- which we all felt was a bit odd and interesting to boot. They never got back together. She was just that disgusted with his response.

What would you do? Why?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolley_problem

It's unclear whether you're inviting discussion about the trolley problem or dumping a relationship over a difference of opinions.

If it's the latter, some context might be useful. I don't know whether the boyfriend was a homidical maniac who would find some way to kill all six people, for example.

If it's the former, I'd say in such a scenario when you know nothing about the six possible victims, the correct decision is to switch the tracks and take only one life.

When you do know some or all of the people on the tracks, it becomes an infinitely complex situation - you might feel compelled to pass judgement. What if the one person was your spouse and the other five were death-row criminals?

I included my own personal history because I thought some of you would find it interesting. And to give evidence of how profound and passionate of a discussion can ensue.

To be fair, his personal decision led to a heated argument which fueled another argument and another and another which led to realities of irreconcilable differences? <shrugs> We thought it unfair because he initially didn't want to participate and she was the initiator of the discussion. I can't think of that problem without remembering the two. My apology if it is too much information.

I thought it obvious that I was inviting discussion of the problem since the title of the thread is "The Trolley problem - what would you do?" ... and NOT crazy gf problem on an alternate track.

And the spirit of the problem rules out any obvious relief. There are no social ties to anyone in the group and all involved are adult subjects of the same age -- a level playing field err tracks except for the numbers.

I didn't include his response or my own because I didn't want to influence or contaminate the results.

Thanks for the braveness of your response, munroburton. And your candor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs0E69k ... e=youtu.be

Can you push the fat man?