Imagine there is a railroad track. On that track there are 5 people standing there. A railroad cart is on its way going fast. You are standing far away but close enough to see it. Next to you is a lever that ,if pulled, will divert the cart onto a different track. The problem is that on that other track there is 1 person standing there. You DO NOT know anybody personally and they are all adults. They are COMPLETLY random. Would you pull the lever?
What if you were on a bridge that went over the tracks and the 5 people were beneath you. Same cart on its way. However, this time there is a very large person standing at the edge. If you push this person over they will fall down to the tracks in front of the 5 people. The cart would srike and kill that person causing it to derail and miss the other 5 people. Would you push that person? (I realize that is is unlikley that any one person could derail a railroad cart but that is not the point of the question)
2007-07-07 10:55:34 · 13 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Polls & Surveys
if you are willing to pull the lever but you will not willing to push the person, I personally think that is hypocritical. What is the difference between pulling the lever and pulling a trigger?
2007-07-07 11:18:03 · update #1
well, in the first situation i suppose one person is better than five. but we have to realize that that one person has people that love him/her just as much as those five do. to be quite honest, knowing myself, i would panic and end up not doing anything.
and in the second situation, i would not push the large person to stop the cart. saving the five people would, of course, be very gratifying. but not at the expense of another life.
2007-07-07 11:02:36 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would not pull the lever. The five people on the target track are dim-witted, and they should not have been standing there anyways. The one person on the other track is innocent. (Plus, wouldn't it be murder if you pulled the lever, I mean, you have nothing to do with the accident if the five die, but you would be the cause of the one's death.)
Same thing with the second story. Except for the fact that the fat man will be killed, and the five people will witness a horrible death, and some adults may never live a pure life, knowing what they know.
So what there's more people? The innocent shall not suffer the consequence of the ignorant.
2007-07-07 18:03:40 · answer #2 · answered by Don't Ask 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I wouldn't pull the lever, but I would start sprinting over to the five people and tell them to hurry up and get off the track. If I couldn't do that, I'd pull the lever.
I would start shouting at the people beneath me to get off the railroad, or if I could do that I'd push the one person.
2007-07-07 18:01:58 · answer #3 · answered by pup 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Assuming that all of these people are deaf and/or stupid and that yelling at them to get out of the way would do no good (and that there are no other options available) I believe that I would have to do whatever will save the most people.
Wouldn't it be unfortunate, however, if the one person was a genius who would live to save millions of people and the other five would never accomplish anything of worth and might, actually, make the world a worse place to live?
2007-07-07 18:07:13 · answer #4 · answered by Stephen J 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would stand there and not do anything. Those 5 people are adults and they should get out of the train's way on their own. It wouldn't be fair for me to decide who lives and dies, even if it's 5 lives compared to 1.
2007-07-07 18:00:46 · answer #5 · answered by Sam 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would be able to remove myself from the accident and pull the lever, but I would not be able to physically push someone to their death.
2007-07-07 17:58:49 · answer #6 · answered by Katie C 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
1st question..yes i would pull the lever...2nd question..i honestly don't know what i would do in that situation..i guess id have to be in that situation to know what i would really do
2007-07-07 18:01:27 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would have the one person suffer for both hypotheses instead of the 5 people.
2007-07-07 18:00:12 · answer #8 · answered by lilsepi 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if they die, they die...idiots shouldn't be standing there in the first place....but i would pull the lever both times...save more lives....
2007-07-07 18:00:28 · answer #9 · answered by just a guy in this world 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes.I would be hurting one person not five, and by doing nothing the five would be hurt or killed and it would be my fault.
yes I would . like I said. One would be in danger not five.
2007-07-07 18:02:42 · answer #10 · answered by StarShine G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋