It’s possible for a question to be wrong. Suppose I ask “What’s 1+1? Is it 4 or 5?” (“No” is not allowed.) The question assumes the answer is 4 or 5, which is wrong.
Presenting a false dichotomy makes the same mistake. In the trolley problem, the implied dichotomy is “pull the lever” or “don’t pull the lever”. They’re both wrong. “Sometimes pull the lever” is the correct answer. If “sometimes pull the lever” isn’t an option then the only options are “always pull the lever” and “always don’t pull the lever”. This is a false dichotomy.
A thought experiment need not provide a realistic level of context. But it bears the burden of providing necessary relevant context when that context would be available in reality.
The trolley problem does illustrate the conflict between utilitarianism and deontology. It also illustrates how underspecified questions elicit nonsense answers.
Thanks for explaining—I think I understand your view better now.
I guess I just don’t see the trolley problem as asking “Is it right or wrong, under all possible circumstances matching this description, to pull the lever?” I agree that would be an invalid question, as you rightly demonstrated. My interpretation is that it asks “Is it right or wrong, summed over all possible circumstances matching this description, weighted by probability, to pull the lever?” I.e. it asks for your prior, absent any context whatsoever, which is a valid question.
Under that interpretation, the correct answer of “sometimes pull the lever” gets split into “probably pull the lever” and “probably don’t pull the lever”, which are the same in effect as “pull” and “don’t pull”. The supposition is that you have a preference in most cases, not that your answer is the same in all cases. (This is still a false dichotomy—there’s also the option of “pull the lever equally as often as not”, but I’ve never heard of anyone genuinely apathetic about the trolley problem.)
The first interpretation seems sensible enough, though, in the sense that many people who pose the trolley problem probably mean it that way. The correct response to those people is to reject the question as invalid. But I don’t think most people mean it that way. Most people ask for your best guess.
Edit: On further reflection I think the usual interpretation is closer to “Is it better to follow a general policy, over all possible circumstances matching this description, to pull the lever or not?” I think this is closer to your interpretation but I don’t think it should produce a different answer to mine.
My interpretation is that it asks “Is it right or wrong, summed over all possible circumstances matching this description, weighted by probability, to pull the lever?” I.e. it asks for your prior, absent any context whatsoever, which is a valid question.
It sounds like you realize why this doesn’t work. If you sum over all possibilities then the philosophical question of deontology vs utilitarianism disappears. Instead, it’s a practical real-world question about actual trolleys that can be answered by examining actual trolley crash data.
Edit: On further reflection I think the usual interpretation is closer to “Is it better to follow a general policy, over all possible circumstances matching this description, to pull the lever or not?” I think this is closer to your interpretation but I don’t think it should produce a different answer to mine.
This makes more sense. I argue that a “general policy” is meaningless when circumstances dominate so hard. You argue that a general policy is still meaningful. I agree that a general policy is the right way to interpret some ethical questions…depending on the context.
(This is still a false dichotomy—there’s also the option of “pull the lever equally as often as not”, but I’ve never heard of anyone genuinely apathetic about the trolley problem.)
It’s possible for a question to be wrong. Suppose I ask “What’s 1+1? Is it 4 or 5?” (“No” is not allowed.) The question assumes the answer is 4 or 5, which is wrong.
Presenting a false dichotomy makes the same mistake. In the trolley problem, the implied dichotomy is “pull the lever” or “don’t pull the lever”. They’re both wrong. “Sometimes pull the lever” is the correct answer. If “sometimes pull the lever” isn’t an option then the only options are “always pull the lever” and “always don’t pull the lever”. This is a false dichotomy.
A thought experiment need not provide a realistic level of context. But it bears the burden of providing necessary relevant context when that context would be available in reality.
The trolley problem does illustrate the conflict between utilitarianism and deontology. It also illustrates how underspecified questions elicit nonsense answers.
Thanks for explaining—I think I understand your view better now.
I guess I just don’t see the trolley problem as asking “Is it right or wrong, under all possible circumstances matching this description, to pull the lever?” I agree that would be an invalid question, as you rightly demonstrated. My interpretation is that it asks “Is it right or wrong, summed over all possible circumstances matching this description, weighted by probability, to pull the lever?” I.e. it asks for your prior, absent any context whatsoever, which is a valid question.
Under that interpretation, the correct answer of “sometimes pull the lever” gets split into “probably pull the lever” and “probably don’t pull the lever”, which are the same in effect as “pull” and “don’t pull”. The supposition is that you have a preference in most cases, not that your answer is the same in all cases.
(This is still a false dichotomy—there’s also the option of “pull the lever equally as often as not”, but I’ve never heard of anyone genuinely apathetic about the trolley problem.)
The first interpretation seems sensible enough, though, in the sense that many people who pose the trolley problem probably mean it that way. The correct response to those people is to reject the question as invalid. But I don’t think most people mean it that way. Most people ask for your best guess.
Edit: On further reflection I think the usual interpretation is closer to “Is it better to follow a general policy, over all possible circumstances matching this description, to pull the lever or not?” I think this is closer to your interpretation but I don’t think it should produce a different answer to mine.
It sounds like you realize why this doesn’t work. If you sum over all possibilities then the philosophical question of deontology vs utilitarianism disappears. Instead, it’s a practical real-world question about actual trolleys that can be answered by examining actual trolley crash data.
This makes more sense. I argue that a “general policy” is meaningless when circumstances dominate so hard. You argue that a general policy is still meaningful. I agree that a general policy is the right way to interpret some ethical questions…depending on the context.
I like this answer. It’s delectably unsatisfying.