blob: c1b6a0c23f00e5b4b6a0d280fa8728b820a313fe (
plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
|
[\<- 07/02](07-02.md)
## Trolley Problem
- 5 people are one one track, 1 person on the other. Which way to you set the train to go
- The trolley is initially going towards the 5 people
- A utilitarian would probably think of this in simple terms: one person dying vs 5 people dying
- This is tough to talk about without knowing who the people on the track are
- Ex. Assume that the 5 people have big families and were the family breadwinners. In this case, it would be exponentially more optimific to move to train to the track with 1 person
- The way you think about this likely changes when the problem changes from turning a level to pushing a person in front of the train
- These two versions brings up the ethics of gunning down people vs killing people with a remote controlled drone
## Beasts are Rational Reading
- Circe is a witch that turns humans into farm animals
- Odysseus lands on Circe's island
- Gryllus is a pig who used to be a man
- In the Ancient World, courage is a virtue
- Gryllus criticizes humans, claiming that they are not always courageous. He claims that animals are instinctually courageous
- A response to this argument is that perhaps humans are courageous when it is smart to be (fight or flight)
- Note that the author is perhaps a bit biased, as he was a vegetarian
---
[07/09 ->](07-09.md)
|
