The “trolley problem” is a thought experiment in which you are supposed to make the most ethical decision in the given situation. After being presented with two choices, this two-year-old solves the moral dilemma by creating his own solution, and it’s actually a bit terrifying.
This how NextWeb describes the theoretical exercise…
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“A runaway train is about to mow down five people tied to the tracks. You, standing in the distance, have the option to pull a lever to make it switch to a second set of tracks. On this set of tracks, there is one person tied down. You have two choices:
- Do nothing, and watch as the train kills the five people on the main track.
- Pull the lever to divert the train to a new track where it’d kill one person.
Which is the most ethical choice?”
After the boy’s father posed this question to his son, the toddler reaches over to add the single person to the group of five so all of them can be mowed down at once. Take that, ethics.
YouTube user E.J. Masicampo published the video with the caption: “I’m teaching a moral psychology class this semester, and we spent part of the first day discussing the trolley problem, which is a frequently used ethical dilemma in discussions of morality. When I returned home that night and was playing trains with my son, I thought it would be interesting to see his response to the trolley problem. I recorded his response so that I could share and discuss it with my class, given especially that we also will be discussing moral development from birth onward. My wife and I are constantly talking with our son about how properly to treat others — so this has been teachable moment both for my class and for our son!”
The decision may have been a simple solution for the toddler, but it was likely not the teachable moment in the way that Masicampo originally intended.
This dilemma may be one of the most famous thought experiments in philosophy, but come on, you totally have to pull the lever and save the group of five, right?
[H/T YouTube: E.J. Masicampo]
