Welcome to the Machine

 “One day everything will be well, that is our hope. Everything's fine today, that is our illusion”

― Voltaire


Perhaps one of the most famous thought experiment ever devised is the trolley problem. It is said to be the classic representation of the clash between the two schools of thought in the western philosophy  - utilitarianism and deontology. The problem states that a trolley is running down a track and on the track there are five people tied up and unable to move. There is an alternative track on which a single person is tied up. You are standing at a lever that can change the direction of the trolley to the alternate track. Your choices are to either do nothing and let the trolley kill five people or to pull the lever and divert the trolley where it kills one person. The dilemma here is that which is the more ethical option? Upon facing the situation, I assume, many people would choose to pull the lever. I myself might end up doing the same. However, there are many variants to the trolley problem as well. What if the five people are death row inmates and the single person is an innocent person? There is a particularly interesting variant related to organ transplant. A doctor can save the lives of five of his dying patients using the organs of one healthy person. Should the doctor honour the Hippocratic Oath that says he should not incur harm upon a patient until necessary or should he save five lives at the cost of one life and a broken oath.

In philosophy, utilitarianism is defined as the theory that promotes actions that maximize happiness and well-being for all the individuals while deontology is the theory that the morality of an action should be based upon whether an action itself is right or wrong rather than the consequence of the said action. From the deontological point of view, I believe both actions are equally wrong as both involve killing no matter how or how much. Therefore, we must pursue the study of this problem from a utilitarian point of view, which brings me to my next argument. If utilitarianism is promoting actions with maximum well-being, then the trolley problem does not represent the utilitarian view at all. For when did maximum well-being start meaning least harm? When did we translate the choice between good and better to that between bad and worse?

The trolley problem is not a philosophical problem but a class problem. The trolley represents nothing more than the ruling order of the establishment that does not stop anywhere. It does not matter in the least if you pull the lever or not; the status quo does not change. The establishment keeps on running whether it needs to claim five lives or one for it to keep running. At the same time, it makes you feel empowered and a part of the system by giving you a terrible and a worthless choice and ascribes any guilt that might emerge from it to you as a consequence of your own actions. The only acceptable solution to the trolley problem is to derail the trolley before it even reaches the junction.

Comments

  1. Kshitij Raj19 August 2020 at 13:37

    Mind blogging, yet a piece to ponder upon! Great article!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rajiv Kumar Shukla19 August 2020 at 19:06

    Every life is precious, good approach

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown23 August 2020 at 04:43

    This was such an enlightening read. Too good!

    ReplyDelete

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