• porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Right, and one of the main, basic ways in which one can consider the trolley problem is that, regardless of the difference in outcomes, pulling the lever makes you morally responsible for what happens.

    • dadarobot@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      Also not pulling the lever makes you morally responsible if you “stand by and do nothing”

        • phdepressed
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          1 month ago

          Decisions have consequences, doing nothing is a decision.

          • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            “doing nothing is a decision” is a legitimate position you can argue for, but it is not some kind of settled moral fact that you can just assert without any justification.

            • phdepressed
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              1 month ago

              It’s less a moral fact and more a fact of life. If you don’t pay bills you get late fees then stop getting the service. If you don’t study you don’t do as well as studying a little or a lot. If you don’t make a move on the girl you like someone else will and/or she’ll move on. If you don’t stop facism…

              “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

              In politics the don’t vote and vote third party are essentially the same of doing nothing until ftfp is fixed.

      • superkret@feddit.org
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        1 month ago

        Unless the lever is in another country and you’re just paying the guy pulling the lever, then “there’s nothing I can do”.

      • porous_grey_matter@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        Yes that’s my point exactly, people love to dogpile on anyone who doesn’t jump at the easy consequentialist solution, but there are other valid interpretations