• shneancy@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      in the original thought experiment not pulling the lever results in the death of the 5 people on tracks, that’s the choice of an attempt to avoid responsibility as you technically had no involvement in their deaths. Pulling the lever means you take direct responsibility for the death of one person, saving 5

      • videogamesandbeer@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        Woah. Never once in my life have I heard that reasoning for not pulling the lever. I have always thought that since I was actively choosing not to pull it, that it was still a direct effect of my choice. I fully believe that people think the way you just described and now I have to reevaluate humanity.

        • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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          9 months ago

          Actions vs outcomes right? Like “I didn’t murder someone” vs “I did what would cause the least harm”.

          I may be wrong but it seems like focusing on my own actions as the basis of morality is self-centered in nature. Whereas thinking about the outcome—how the people in the track are affected—is other-centered. Doing nothing seems to seek to avoid judgement of self at the cost of 5 lives. The other seeks to save 5 lives at the cost of actively killing one person.

          Though, I suppose, one could wonder what terrible things the latter might choose to do to save many more.

          • MotoAsh@lemmy.world
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            9 months ago

            I dunno’, I’d MUCH rather have someone in charge that knowingly saves five than cowardly allowing them to die… The person who can dismiss five deaths is FAR more likely to be a horrible piece of shit.

        • MBM@lemmings.world
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          9 months ago

          Huh, every time I hear about the trolley problem it’s always “now imagine that instead of pulling the lever, you need to push someone onto the track so the trolley stops after that first collision.” Some people would pull the lever but not push someone onto the tracks, and that’s where it gets interesting.

            • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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              9 months ago

              And if you can push someone, you could use your own body too. Maybe the scenarios word around that (you have to push somebody and hold the lever, for example).

              I imagine the nightmares from pushing a person would be worse than those from pulling a lever.

        • OpenStars@kbin.social
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          9 months ago

          It perhaps shows how successful the trolly experiment has been, playing its part in changing our cultural attitudes as a whole, since its’ purpose (lately, I dunno about originally) was to get people to realize exactly what you just said: that choosing to do nothing is still a choice. Sort of a “wake up, sheeple!” message.

          Older generations like Boomers and especially Great before that were ignoring climate change and so much else - not having access to the internet, knowledge was more difficult to come by back then.

          Today’s era involves different struggles, mainly against misinformation, but at least people more often have their eyes open.

          Edit: NSFW video version from the TV show The Good Place that adds some new dimensions to the problem: https://youtu.be/DtRhrfhP5b4?si=zI6lV0G_VRhzjz97.:-)

    • danc4498@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Probably the guy on the right doesn’t see the people on the left track about to die. And the guy on the left doesn’t see the person on the right whose life was saved.

      The moral is something something perspective something.

    • whatever@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      10 to 15 children, and a kitten. But the guy on the other track was Elon Musk, saving the world with EVs and rockets and stuff. How would you have chosen?

  • drolex@sopuli.xyz
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    9 months ago

    Take that, Immanuel, you fucking logorrheic simpleton. You’re done. Your books can still be used to sort out a wobbly table I suppose.