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It's not a fantasy - you kinda had a similar situation on 9/11 with United 93. In that case, the passengers brought it down before a decision could be made, but

It's not a fantasy - you kinda had a similar situation on 9/11 with United 93. In that case, the passengers brought it down before a decision could be made, but in case they didn't, the moral question would be nearly identical. There's a plane full of people that got hijacked and will definitely be used to cause even more casualties. You know that the people on the plane are going to die anyway. Would you really shut it down just like that?

agarden 11y ago
If you really know, then yes. On those on flight 93 seemed to know. But the other two planes didn't and they didn't do anything. Totally reasonable. Where I in the hypothetical train scenario, I would not pull the lever. Because in truth, I don't <i>know</i> that the five people will be killed. One of them may look up in time, shout, and all of them scatter. But the one loner? He may be too absorbed in his task. The details in these kinds of things really matter. They make or break the morality of the scenario. And the details in the train & lever scenario are implausible. The supposed level of certainty is too high.