Apparently one of the things to do with freshman philosophy students is to get them to think about the Trolley problem. There is a truly marvellous proof of the answer to this problem, but there is insufficient storage capacity on Blogger for it.
Further Info:
"The Expert Mind" by Philip E Ross, Scientific American, 24 July 2006
"Folk Science" by Michael Shermer, Scientific American, 24 July 2006
"An Evolutionary Theory of Right and Wrong" by Nicholas Wade, The New York Times, 31 October 2006 (registration required)
"Gen Ys in short supply to fill gap left by boomers" by Bernalt Salt, The Australian, 8 March 2007
"A new crop of kids: Generation We" by Stefanie Olsen, CNET News.com, 22 January 2007
There is a bastardisation of this concept toward the end of John Travolta's Swordfish - possibly the worst bad movie ever made:
ReplyDeleteStan turns to Gabriel, angry. He grabs him, pushing him.
STANLEY
How the fuck can you justify all
this?
GABRIEL
You're not looking at the big
picture.
Gabriel pushes him backward against the hand rail.
GABRIEL
Stanley, here's a scenario. You
have the power to cure all of the
world's diseases. But the price
for this is that you must kill a
single, innocent child. Could you
kill that child to save the world?
STANLEY
No.
GABRIEL
You disappoint me, Stanley. It's
the greatest good.
Silence for several beats.
STANLEY
How about ten innocents?
Best part: "It's the greatest good." It's like Shakespeare!