Topics Ethics

Question In one famous trolley case, it seems clear that the driver should divert the trolley to the spur, killing one while saving five. In another, it seems clear that a bystnader should not push the fat man off the bridge, again killing one to save five in the trolley's path. But what is the justification for my intuition? Do you see any relevant, principled difference between the two cases that would explain why I should divert the trolley yet refrain from pushing the fat man?

Accepted:
August 2, 2012

Comments

The difference many find morally significant lies in the agent's state of mind. Both bystanders -- B1 and B2 -- intend to save the five; but B2 intends to accomplish this by having the trolley hit the fat man so as to stop it. The fat man getting hit is part of B2's intention: if the fat man somehow lands off-track or hits the track only after the trolley has passed, then B2's plan has failed. By contrast, the intention of B1 does not include anyone being harmed: if B1 diverts the trolley and the single person on the side track is nonetheless saved somehow, B1's plan has still been successfully executed.

Another way of putting the point is this. Harm that an agent intends as a means toward achieving the aim of her action counts more strongly against the permissibility of this action than harm that this agent merely foresees as a side-effect of achieving the aim of her action.

I think it should be noted that Professor Pogge's reply invokes, or alludes to, the controversial Doctrine of Double Effect (or else something close to that doctrine). For an account of the doctrine and of some of the controversy surrounding it, see this SEP article. One problem for the doctrine emerges when we consider a reply that B2 might make: "I didn't intend the trolley to hurt the fat man. I intended only that he stop the trolley (although of course I foresaw that his being harmed would be a side-effect of his stopping the trolley). So I didn't intend harm any more than B1 did." B2's reply seems lame, no?