Okay, that’s actually the first time I’d seen the Trolley problem involve a “mad philosopher” (or equivalent concept) having tied them to the track, and that includes my previous visits to the Wikipedia article!
And even the later expositions in the article involving a fat man don’t mention people being kidnapped.
Well, I didn’t edit the article! I think you’re right about the assumption of risk version.
I do prefer the “mad philosopher” versions, because they make the apparently contradictory preferences very clear. That way, you’re weighing 5x against x. Most people have an intuition that it would be wrong to push the fat man, yet right to change the course of the trolley, which seems strange.
Okay, that’s actually the first time I’d seen the Trolley problem involve a “mad philosopher” (or equivalent concept) having tied them to the track, and that includes my previous visits to the Wikipedia article!
And even the later expositions in the article involving a fat man don’t mention people being kidnapped.
Well, I didn’t edit the article! I think you’re right about the assumption of risk version.
I do prefer the “mad philosopher” versions, because they make the apparently contradictory preferences very clear. That way, you’re weighing 5x against x. Most people have an intuition that it would be wrong to push the fat man, yet right to change the course of the trolley, which seems strange.
I was curious, so I went to look. The ‘mad philosopher’ phrase was added in April, by an unnamed contributor. [Link]