• porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    14
    arrow-down
    25
    ·
    1 month ago

    Right, and one of the main, basic ways in which one can consider the trolley problem is that, regardless of the difference in outcomes, pulling the lever makes you morally responsible for what happens.

    • dadarobot@lemmy.sdf.org
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      46
      arrow-down
      5
      ·
      1 month ago

      Also not pulling the lever makes you morally responsible if you “stand by and do nothing”

          • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            5
            arrow-down
            10
            ·
            edit-2
            1 month ago

            “doing nothing is a decision” is a legitimate position you can argue for, but it is not some kind of settled moral fact that you can just assert without any justification.

            • phdepressed@sh.itjust.works
              link
              fedilink
              arrow-up
              8
              arrow-down
              2
              ·
              1 month ago

              It’s less a moral fact and more a fact of life. If you don’t pay bills you get late fees then stop getting the service. If you don’t study you don’t do as well as studying a little or a lot. If you don’t make a move on the girl you like someone else will and/or she’ll move on. If you don’t stop facism…

              “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

              In politics the don’t vote and vote third party are essentially the same of doing nothing until ftfp is fixed.

      • superkret@feddit.org
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        1 month ago

        Unless the lever is in another country and you’re just paying the guy pulling the lever, then “there’s nothing I can do”.

      • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 month ago

        Yes that’s my point exactly, people love to dogpile on anyone who doesn’t jump at the easy consequentialist solution, but there are other valid interpretations