feotakahari

A problem we’re currently facing: Football players give themselves brain damage for the entertainment of the masses. What methods, ranging from improved safety techniques to bans on particular tactics, should be used to minimize injury?

A problem in philosophy textbooks: Several people have been murdered, and a mob is seeking vengeance. People will die if they’re not satisfied. Is it moral to accuse some random stranger of the crime, letting him be killed so others won’t be?

A problem we’re currently facing: People are murdered by terrorists, and the public demands protection. This may involve anything from bombing the living hell out of random uninvolved brown people, to outreach and awareness in communities where terrorists might be recruited, to bribing known terrorists so they’ll spill info on their colleagues. What actions should be taken to ensure that citizens both feel safe and are safe?

A problem in philosophy textbooks: a trolley is out of control and will kill six people. You can pull a lever to redirect it, killing one person. Do you pull the lever?

A problem we’re currently facing: Hospitals need funds to treat their patients. Police need funds to try to reduce the crime rate. Funds are needed for pollution cleanup, for fire prevention, for schools, for supporting the unemployed, for everything you can imagine. How should we distribute the money? For that matter, what moral values should we use to determine the best way of distributing the money?

This is one of the reasons I don’t put much stock in ethics thought experiments. The typical approach is to create an extreme situation, without any room for alternate approaches, and then say the code of ethics that’s “right” is the one that gives the most normal, everyday answer. But those aren’t the questions that matter. Regardless of what values you follow, the questions you need to address are the ones you actually have to deal with.