Book contents
- The Trolley Problem
- Classic Philosophical Arguments
- The Trolley Problem
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Keeping track of your trolleys
- 2 Shunted trolleys and other diversions
- 3 Must we turn the trolley?
- 4 Non-consequentialism in light of the trolley problem
- 5 Non-consequentialist principles under conditions of uncertainty
- 6 The trolley problem and the doing/allowing distinction
- 7 Virtue ethics and the trolley problem
- 8 Trolley dilemmas from the philosopher’s armchair to the psychologist’s lab
- 9 Trolleyology
- 10 Cross-cultural responses to trolley problems and their implications for moral philosophy or
- 11 Ethical accident algorithms for autonomous vehicles and the trolley problem
- 12 A new trolley problem?
- Bibliography
- Index
12 - A new trolley problem?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 February 2023
- The Trolley Problem
- Classic Philosophical Arguments
- The Trolley Problem
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables
- Contributors
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 Keeping track of your trolleys
- 2 Shunted trolleys and other diversions
- 3 Must we turn the trolley?
- 4 Non-consequentialism in light of the trolley problem
- 5 Non-consequentialist principles under conditions of uncertainty
- 6 The trolley problem and the doing/allowing distinction
- 7 Virtue ethics and the trolley problem
- 8 Trolley dilemmas from the philosopher’s armchair to the psychologist’s lab
- 9 Trolleyology
- 10 Cross-cultural responses to trolley problems and their implications for moral philosophy or
- 11 Ethical accident algorithms for autonomous vehicles and the trolley problem
- 12 A new trolley problem?
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This chapter puts forward a novel healthcare application of the Trolley Problem by applying it to our most recent global health crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic. The following hypothesis is introduced, analyzed and ultimately rejected: that the Trolley Problem can be used to distinguish between the supposed ethical permissibility of lifting lockdowns and the supposed ethical impermissibility of pursuing herd immunity during the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the chapter is twofold: both to test whether and how far we can progress within pandemic ethics by using the Trolley Problem and also to test whether the particular case of the COVID-19 pandemic can make a methodological contribution to trolley debates in philosophy.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Trolley Problem , pp. 231 - 243Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023