Feynman teaching note

The Trolley Problem

SubjectPhilosophy

Area tags

Philosophy

The trolley problem is a thought experiment that pits two moral instincts against each other. A runaway trolley will kill five people. You can pull a lever to divert it to a side track, where it kills one instead. Do you pull it? Most people say yes: five lives saved beats one lost. That's consequentialist thinking, judging an act by its outcomes. Now change it: the only way to stop the trolley is to push a large stranger off a bridge into its path, killing them but saving five. The maths is identical (one dies, five live), yet most people refuse. That's a deontological instinct: some acts (using a person as a mere tool, actively killing) feel wrong regardless of the outcome. The point isn't the 'right' answer. It's that our morality mixes outcome-based and rule-based reasoning, and the two can flatly disagree.

Same topic, fresh practice—does not count as an adaptation.

Practice building on this note. If you publish, it can show “Based on” and add an adaptation.

Feedback & gaps

Clarity score: 83/100How well you know it: Can use it anywhere

Explain why people answer the lever and the bridge versions differently even though the body count is the same.

Doesn't name the doctrine of double effect that some use to reconcile the cases.
Could note criticisms that artificial dilemmas mislead real ethics.

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