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The Trolley Problem, Or Would You Throw The Fat Guy Off The Bridge?: A Philosophical Conundrum (2013)

by Thomas Cathcart(Favorite Author)

3.78 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

076117513X (ISBN13: 9780761175131)

languge

English

genre

Nonfiction

publisher

Workman Publishing Company

review 1: The aim of the book is to get you to start thinking critically about the moral stances you take and the justifications you concoct for your actions...and inaction. As an introduction to critical thinking, I think it is very successful. I was introduced to a few new concepts (for me), such as the dangers of argument from analogy and I was comforted that even an extreme altruist like Peter Singer seems okay with drawing the line somewhere. I feel a little less upset that I'm surrounded by moral ambiguity after having read this book. The important thing is not possessing the truth so much as having the ability to understand why we feel the way we do.
review 2: In the November 24, 2013 issue of The New York Times Book Review, I read a review of two books dealing wi... moreth an ethical, moral and philosophical issue that has become known as the Trolley Problem. The issue basically is the following situation: a trolley car is speeding unchecked along the main track. Ahead, also on the main track, are five people. Unable to stop, the trolley with hit and kill all five. However, there is a side track the trolley can be diverted onto. Unfortunately, there is a person also on the side track who will be killed if the trolley is diverted. The question is whether the trolley should be diverted killing the one person in order to save the five. The two books reviewed were: Would You Kill the Fat Man? The Trolley Problem and What Your Answer Tells Us About Right and Wrong by David Edmonds and The Trolley Problem: Or, Would You Throw the Fat Guy Off the Bridge? A Philosophical Conundrum by Thomas Cathcart.After reading the review, I thought both of these books would make for interesting reading. On December 3, while in Springfield MO, I stopped at the Barnes and Noble there and purchased both books. I finished reading Cathcart’s book about a week ago.Thomas Cathcart is an author of several philosophical works co-written with David Klein that attempt to make some of the major ideas of philosophy clear to general readers. His three previous books, written with Klein, are interesting and have wonderfully provocative titles: Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar…Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes, Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington: Understanding Political Doublespeak Through Philosophy and Jokes, and Heidegger and a Hippo Walk Through Those Pearly Gates: Using Philosophy (and Jokes!) to Explore Life, Death, the Afterlife, and Everything in Between. The Trolley Problem: Or, Would You Throw the Fat Guy Off the Bridge? A Philosophical Conundrum is Cathcart first solely written book. As with the previous three volumes, the book is relatively short and fast reading.In The Trolley Problem: Or, Would You Throw the Fat Guy Off the Bridge? A Philosophical Conundrum, Cathcart takes on the trolley problem and its various variations in the form of reporting a court case with the Court being the Court of Public Opinion. The initial problem is as I first explained in which a person on the trolley throws the switch to go onto the side track, thus killing the one man in favor of the other five. The book opens, following Cathcart’s prologue (in which he provides the history of the problem), with a newspaper account saying the woman has been charged with manslaughter. Then the police report is given. The trial is presented with the jury instructions by the chief bailiff, the prosecutor’s summary statement, concluded by the defense attorney’s closing statement. In these we are given the basic facts of the original case, but also some variations. The prosecutor presents a second case in which following an accident in which five people were seriously hurt and needing various organ transplants while a sixth person was uninjured, a doctor removes the organs from the sixth person, transplants them into the other five, thus saving all five. Unfortunately, the sixth person subsequently dies. The prosecutor argues that this was not morally justified. The defense attorney then presents a case in which a man is standing on a bridge and sees a runaway trolley heading toward five people farther down the track. The trolley will hit and kill all five. However, it can be stopped if a suitably heavy mass can be thrown in front of it. Unfortunately, the only object heavy enough is a large fat man standing next to him. Is it morally justifiable to sacrifice the fat man to save the other five? This is the best known version of this issue. Following these court statements are a faculty colloquium, a philosophy class lecture (which argues when analogies are useful or not), a psychological analysis, an amicus curiae brief, and a debate on NPR. The book concludes with the jury instructions from the judge, the jury deliberations and an epilogue. As I wrote earlier, this is a very fast read, but extremely fascinating. Cathcart presents both sides well delving into issues of utilitarianism, consequentialism, issues of both human and personal rights, the permissibility of performing acts that have both good and bad effects (Aquinas’s Principle of the Double Effect), and several other issues. The format Cathcart uses makes the discussion relevant and interesting.I would highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in ethics, morality or even philosophy in a modern context. Of particular interest was a survey done several years ago in which the people surveyed voted on whether they thought the choices made were correct. In the original case (switching tracks), 88% of the people thought that the choice made to switch tracks was morally correct. However, in the case of throwing the fat man off the bridge, only 11% thought it was morally defensible. What is different about these two cases? The basic facts are the same: sacrifice one to save five. Read the book, and if it doesn’t completely answer the question, it will give you a lot to ponder. less

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