A Train's Paradox: Can You Crack It?


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An inconvenient situation -

Envisage that you are riding on a train. After perceiving the railway in a blot form the blue manner, there are five laborers on the railway line. The train is moving swiftly; brakes are not working. No one is realizing your cautioning. Near to crash into them, you stumbled upon another railway line to take.

However, there is a worker on this line. You are in a cleft stick, between the devil and the sea, Scylla, and Charybdis; you vacillate between taking each line by dint of each choice ravages - Complete in your trace and kill five or take the other line and make a worker kick the bucket.

After making a survey concomitant of this case, a profusion of people rested upon changing the line and kill only a worker to save five other hands. The principle is now palpable killing 1 to save 5. What about a similar story to corroborate this tenet?

An analogous situation but you are here a spectator on a bridge, and the same situation is transpiring. You are standing with an eminently obese man. You are sure that provided you threw him; the train will crash into and kill him saving five workers.

After conducting a poll about this case, they leaped out of their skin by dint of the peculiar result of this poll; a plethora of people picked and chose to let the five people breadth their last without throwing the obsess man! What happened to make the same people change their mind abruptly?

What about the notion we have consented to pursue it? Why did people choose to change the trace and kill one, but in the second case, they let five die without shoving someone, albeit the reverberation will not differ? Why this ambivalence?

The 3-year-old children made the same choices as adults. Can we assume in the second case that the fat man was out of the situation; ergo why should we push him? Ruminate about it again.

The person we chose to kill in the first situation was also out of the situation, and innocent into the bargain, or when you were in the train, you were compelled to enter such an abysmal situation and be decisive, unlike the second case where you were just an observer.

Cogitate once again. When you were on the bridge, you could save five souls. One last thing - why pushing the fat man makes you guilty more than killing the lonely worker? Why and both actions beget the same upshot, saving five people? Why we denote these cases as they are separate?


The outset -

This woe is known as “The Trolley Problem.” One of the most significant actions to arise is a course called justice presented by Michael Sandel at Harvard University. This is one of the intellectual experiences in deontology that bewildered a cornucopia of miscellaneous people - psychology scientists, engineers, and many others.

Can we regard that our actions as moral or not are grounding in its ramifications, or it is not strongly germane to that? Am I allowed to break some rules on the condition that I will not harm anyone, or lie if this will occasion better benefit on me?


The Utilitarianism -

The English Philosopher, Jeremy Bentham was one of the Utilitarianism theory founders, which stated that the only category for evaluating actions is its repercussions which are known as consequential moral reasoning; Bentham abbreviated it in this phrase_ “The greatest good for the greatest number.” Unassailably, the right action in Bentham’s is to sacrifice 1 to save 5.

Here is a real-life example, Ford’s issue in 1972 where its cars were exploding if hit with more-than-30-km/h speed in that the petrol tank was not secured. After these accidents became drastic, people make an allegation on Ford. After investigations, they got to know that ford was aware of that.

After making the cost-benefit analysis, Ford discovered that it is not necessary to put this safety tool. When comparing the cost of remedying this conundrum to the compensations for the victims’ families, Ford was earning more than 90 million dollars when compensating for the safety tool’s ravages.


The Utilitarianism competitor -

To be writ large, manifold people are against the utilitarianism; sometimes, the actions are not categorized according to their results. This principle is known as categorical moral reasoning. Immanuel Kant is one of its pioneers.

Kant stated that the only category for evaluating that action is not dependable on the corollary of it, but on the value of this action; there is also a moral board which is obvious and relied on venerating some specific rights for humans, and no one can kill someone even it will be for the sake for the majority.

The action that can be preponderant for the sake of society is not necessary to be morally accepted. He sees that what makes the person elated can be different from what makes him good. For instance, in the case of taking drugs, we will be happy, but will we be good citizens?

This one of the major conflicts between this and utilitarianism since utilitarianism does not revere the others’ rights. He claimed that a person’s life can not be priced; it is an infinite value. One of this principle’s pillars is nothing is called necessities allow what is prohibited.

Another elucidation -

On the other hand, some people commenced observing the trolley problem elucidated before from another perception; in the first case where you were coerced to kill one or five, this wasn’t a moral choice; you do not know any of them. What if the one is one of your relatives?

Will you kill him and save the five? The decision here can be moral where the impetus will be instinctive; this was Paul Bloom's explication to this paradox.

Laconically, we meet with such a situation where we become unable to decide what we should sacrifice. For example, can I torture someone till he admits something which can be used for the good of life, can I kill a small class of people for the survival of the others?

This is not trifling at all. This en passant motive can be the incentive behind the eliminations, following some roles and breaking it sometimes can make us dare to transgress them always and do pernicious actions.



- Written by Mohammad Hassan (EMN Community Member From Egypt)

- Edited by Mridul Goyal (EMN Community Member From New Delhi, India)