What do you think of the Trolley Problem?

[the-pi-guy]

I would not push the man.

I do not know if I would pull the lever.

Apparently most people would pull the lever. And most people would not push the man.

The professor brought up this problem in our ethics course.  And its interesting that small differences to a scenario can make them feel different.  

It is not right in my opinion for me to judge the value of a life. The variant with the man is easy because it's his call not mine. Plus it is directly murder and the end does not justify the means.

The lever example is hard because it exists in a weird middle state between two different answers. If for some reason I was forced to decide between both groups and niether group was pre-selected by something else, I would save the group of 5/the "better" group. However if the universe decided for me and killed the group of five, I wouldn't think "if only there was a way that I could have forced someone else to die in their place."

One thing that our professor said is that a big difference between the two scenarios is that hurting someone in the first case is a side effect, whereas the second case it's directly part of the plan.  

If the man on the second track were to get out of the way, that would be something to celebrate.  You saved everyone's life.  

If the large man gets out of the way, that ruins the plan.  

The latter scenario feels malevolent to most people, whereas pulling the lever doesn't.