Book contents
- The Trolley Problem
- Classic Philosophical Arguments
- The Trolley Problem
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Keeping track of your trolleys
- 2 Shunted trolleys and other diversions
- 3 Must we turn the trolley?
- 4 Non-consequentialism in light of the trolley problem
- 5 Non-consequentialist principles under conditions of uncertainty
- 6 The trolley problem and the doing/allowing distinction
- 7 Virtue ethics and the trolley problem
- 8 Trolley dilemmas from the philosopher’s armchair to the psychologist’s lab
- 9 Trolleyology
- 10 Cross-cultural responses to trolley problems and their implications for moral philosophy or
- 11 Ethical accident algorithms for autonomous vehicles and the trolley problem
- 12 A new trolley problem?
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Keeping track of your trolleys
Origins and destinations
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2023
- The Trolley Problem
- Classic Philosophical Arguments
- The Trolley Problem
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Keeping track of your trolleys
- 2 Shunted trolleys and other diversions
- 3 Must we turn the trolley?
- 4 Non-consequentialism in light of the trolley problem
- 5 Non-consequentialist principles under conditions of uncertainty
- 6 The trolley problem and the doing/allowing distinction
- 7 Virtue ethics and the trolley problem
- 8 Trolley dilemmas from the philosopher’s armchair to the psychologist’s lab
- 9 Trolleyology
- 10 Cross-cultural responses to trolley problems and their implications for moral philosophy or
- 11 Ethical accident algorithms for autonomous vehicles and the trolley problem
- 12 A new trolley problem?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The Trolley Problem is not only one of the most widely discussed puzzles in moral philosophy. It is also one of the most controversial with respect to its perceived importance. At the one end of the spectrum there are those who consider it to reveal facts that belong at the very center of our moral understanding. At the other end of the spectrum there are those who consider it to be an example of contemporary philosophy at its most pointless. In this chapter, I critically address this dispute by tracing the discussion of the problem from its earliest formulation on the work of Philippa Foot, Judith Thomson, and Frances Kamm. Then I discuss a number of the most important criticisms of these discussions, drawing on the work of Barbara Fried. In doing so, I describe not only the actual causes of the problem’s continuing interest but also the underlying justification and rationale for that interest to which that history gives evidence.
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- The Trolley Problem , pp. 7 - 24Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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