it is a very bad thought experiment but the memes are decent
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the reason it's a bad thought experiment is because it encourages analysis of ethical problems in isolation, without their context, and with undue certainty in the outcomes of decisions
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its a good example problem for illustrating how example problems of this contrived sort are not useful tools for refining our thinking on ethics
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I fear that far too many people use it straight-forwardly as an example of utilitarian or consequentialist ethical decision making. I hope I'm wrong and that this group is much smaller than I think it is.
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in case it needs to be spelled out, here it goes: WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT IS FURTHER DOWN THOSE TRACKS. what if there's another 100 people 1 mile down the track with the 1 guy in front of you right here?
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secondarily we have no idea who those people are. suppose the 1 guy will invent a cure for AIDS and the 5 guys are members of your personally most reviled outgroup and they're child rapists to boot.
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because the problem doesn't withstand and level of scrutiny or fleshing-out it is a bad problem and is some kind of anti-praxis for making reasonable decisions about ethics
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and I think most people know this and are only in it for the memes and don't take this one too seriously. I HOPE. this concludes my very brief thread about this silly subject.
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End of conversation
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