Imagine: you are standing on a bridge over the railway tracks, along which an uncontrolled trolley rushes.
There are five people on her way who are guaranteed to die from a collision. But next to you is a very large person (for fidelity – with a heavy backpack over his shoulders), who can slow down the trolley with his body. Are you ready to push him onto the rails in the name of saving the five? Most of us do not have to deal with such tasks on a daily basis. But thought experiments like this have given rise to a whole branch of moral philosophy, “cartology.” Its purpose is to understand how our moral intuition operates. Philosopher David Edmonds manages not only to clearly state the existing approaches to the problem, but also to show that interest in it goes far beyond pure philosophy. The scenario with the fat man and the trolley seems speculative, but it demonstrates a “laboratory” version of very real situations. Doctors, military, police and rescuers will confirm how difficult it is to make a decision when there is no way to do without victims, and there is no time to think. Cartology also has a broader meaning: are we ready to limit the rights of others and make the other person a means to an end? And if we agree to such a moral assumption, will we not thereby open Pandora’s box?
Publishing house of the Gaidar Institute, 256 p., 2016.