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| the Trolley Problem | |
|---|---|
| Name | the Trolley Problem |
| Caption | Ethical dilemma diagram |
| Field | Ethics |
| Introduced | 1967 |
| Notable | Philippa Foot, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Footbridge dilemma |
the Trolley Problem is a philosophical thought experiment that poses a moral dilemma about causing harm to save lives, often involving decisions about diverting a runaway trolley. It has been debated across ethics, law, psychology, and computer science, attracting attention from philosophers, neuroscientists, and policymakers. The scenario has been used to probe consequentialist and deontological reasoning, to inform autonomous vehicle design, and to inspire public debates involving legal frameworks and professional codes.
The classic formulation invites a decision-maker to choose between allowing a trolley to continue on a track where it will kill five people or diverting it to a track where it will kill one person, engaging figures such as Philippa Foot, Judith Jarvis Thomson, John Rawls, Immanuel Kant, Jeremy Bentham, and J. J. C. Smart. Prominent philosophers including Peter Singer, Derek Parfit, Elizabeth Anscombe, Gilbert Harman, and Derek Dreaper have used variants to contrast utilitarian ethics exemplified by John Stuart Mill and Act Utilitarianism with deontological constraints associated with Kantian ethics and discussions in Virtue ethics tied to Aristotle. Legal scholars citing cases from Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, United States v. Eichman and international bodies such as European Court of Human Rights have examined its implications for duty, negligence, and intent.
The dilemma traces to work by Philippa Foot in articles influenced by debates around World War II, reactions to medical triage discussions in Florence Nightingale's reform era, and later elaboration by Judith Jarvis Thomson in the context of analytic philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Cambridge, and Oxford University. The problem resonated with mid-20th century moral theory discourse involving Elizabeth Anscombe and responses to utilitarian arguments from figures connected to Princeton University and Harvard University. Historical analogues appear in legal discussions from Nuremberg Trials jurisprudence and wartime ethics debates in the aftermath of Battle of Britain and policy deliberations linked to United Nations conventions.
Scholars have proposed many permutations, including the Pull Lever, Footbridge, Loop Track, Transplant, and Fat Man scenarios debated by Judith Jarvis Thomson, Philippa Foot, Frances Kamm, Shelly Kagan, and Jeff McMahan. Related thought experiments connect to classical problems like Ship of Theseus identity puzzles, analogies to Heinrich Himmler-era medical ethics controversies, and contemporary contrasts involving Asimov-inspired robotics dilemmas and AI narratives from Alan Turing-era machine ethics discussions. Variants reference historical events such as Hiroshima and medical cases deliberated during hearings at Nuremberg Military Tribunal to test intuitions about permissible harm.
Analyses invoke philosophers and doctrines including John Stuart Mill, Immanuel Kant, Peter Singer, Derek Parfit, Thomas Nagel, Philippa Foot, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Frances Kamm, and G. E. Moore. Utilitarian frameworks from Jeremy Bentham and Benthamite traditions argue for maximizing aggregate welfare as advanced at institutions like University of Oxford and Princeton University, while deontological approaches echo principles from Immanuel Kant and legal theorists linked to Harvard Law School. Rights-based arguments draw on jurisprudence exemplified by United States Supreme Court opinions, and virtue-theoretic perspectives relate back to Aristotle and discussions in ethics departments at University of Cambridge.
Empirical investigations have engaged researchers at Yale University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University using trolley-style vignettes, neuroimaging studies with references to Paul Broca and Wernicke-area work, and cross-cultural surveys involving populations in United States, United Kingdom, China, India, and Japan. Studies by teams including Joshua Greene, Tali Sharot, Fiery Cushman, Jonathan Haidt, Daniel Kahneman, and Amos Tversky have correlated moral judgments with activation in brain regions studied at institutions like National Institutes of Health and Max Planck Society. Experimental paradigms similar to those used in Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo research probe obedience, situational factors, and moral framing effects.
The trolley dilemma informs policy and technology debates involving Tesla, Inc., autonomous vehicle regulations discussed in forums like the European Commission and United States Department of Transportation, and professional ethics codes from American Medical Association and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It shapes discussions at conferences hosted by Association for Computing Machinery, International Association for Engineering Ethics, and advisory bodies to World Health Organization on triage and resource allocation during crises such as COVID-19 pandemic and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Legal implications intersect with landmark cases in United States v. Carroll Towing Co.-style negligence law and international deliberations at the International Court of Justice.
Critics including Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Philippa Foot, Judith Jarvis Thomson, Frances Kamm, John Rawls, and Elizabeth Anscombe argue that the thought experiment is unrealistic, culturally biased, and poorly suited to policy-making, echoing methodological critiques from Thomas Kuhn-style philosophy of science debates and empirical critiques originating from social psychology incidents like those at Stanford Prison Experiment. Debates continue in venues such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Scientific American, and academic journals produced by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
Category:Thought experiments