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Books

The Trolley Problem Mysteries by F. M. Kamm

Richard Baron tracks what Trolley Problems can tell us about ethics.

A runaway trolley is coming up to a switch (or in British English, a tram is coming up to a set of points). If nothing is done, it will carry straight on and kill five people who are working on the track. If you switch the trolley to the right, they will be saved but one person who is on the other track will be killed. What should you do?

Trolley problems have been with us since the 1970s. They continue to fascinate, mainly because of the scope they offer to vary the details in the effort to discover an underlying rationale for our ethical decisions.

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