Imagine you're watching a runaway trolley
barreling down the tracks
straight towards five workers
who can't escape.
You happen to be standing next to a switch
that will divert the trolley
onto a second track.
Here's the problem.
That track has a worker on it, too,
but just one.
What do you do?
Do you sacrifice one person to save five?
This is the trolley problem,
a version of an ethical dilemma that
philosopher Philippa Foot devised in 1967.
It's popular because it forces us
to think about how to choose
when there are no good choices.
Do we pick the action
with the best outcome
or stick to a moral code that prohibits
causing someone's death? sembra naturale?