scholarly journals A Kantian Solution to the Trolley Problem

2020 ◽  
pp. 204-228
Author(s):  
Pauline Kleingeld
Keyword(s):  
Trolley Problem ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Relevant Difference ◽  
Moral Difference

This chapter proposes a solution to the Trolley Problem in terms of the Kantian prohibition on using a person ‘merely as a means.’ A solution of this type seems impossible due to the difficulties it is widely thought to encounter in the scenario known as the Loop case. The chapter offers a conception of ‘using merely as a means’ that explains the morally relevant difference between the classic Bystander and Footbridge cases. It then shows, contrary to the standard view, that a bystander who diverts the trolley in the Loop case need not be using someone ‘merely as a means’ in doing so. This makes it possible to show why the Loop scenario does not undermine the explanation of the salient moral difference between the Bystander and Footbridge cases.

Speciesism and the Idea of Equality

Philosophy ◽  
1978 ◽  
Vol 53 (204) ◽  
pp. 247-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonnie Steinbock
Keyword(s):  
Moral Philosopher ◽  
Relevant Difference ◽  
Moral Difference

Most of us believe that we are entitled to treat members of other species in ways which would be considered wrong if inflicted on members of our own species. We kill them for food, keep them confined, use them in painful experiments. The moral philosopher has to ask what relevant difference justifies this difference in treatment. A look at this question will lead us to re-examine the distinctions which we have assumed make a moral difference.

Evolution and the trolley problem: People save five over one unless the one is young, genetically related, or a romantic partner.

2010 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 115-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
April Bleske-Rechek ◽  
Lyndsay A. Nelson ◽  
Jonathan P. Baker ◽  
Mark W. Remiker ◽  
Sarah J. Brandt
Keyword(s):  
Romantic Partner ◽  
Trolley Problem ◽  
The One

The Relationship between the Development of Human Capital and the Agricultural Economy in Rural Areas

2020 ◽  
pp. 61-65
Author(s):  
B.A. Voronin ◽  
◽  
I.P. Chupina ◽  
Ya.V. Voronina ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Household Factors ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
The Relationship

The article discusses a non-standard view of the formation of human capital for work in organizations of the agricultural sector of the economy, in the context of modern socio-economic transformations. In the classical sense, human capital for agriculture should be formed and developed in rural areas. But in real life, this is not always the case, because there are many factors that prevent the classical solution of this problem. First, the demographic factor affects, second, social and household factors, and third, in many rural areas there are no working agricultural organizations where qualified agricultural specialists can work. All these and other circumstances actualize the problem of the quality of human capital in rural areas in relation to the development of agricultural production.

Disanalogical Discourse on Trolley Problem for Autonomous Vehicles

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayukh Mukhopadhyay ◽  
Kaushik Ghosh ◽  
Abhisita Chakraborty ◽  
Malay Goswami
Keyword(s):  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Trolley Problem

Freedom and Practical Judgement

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Owens
Keyword(s):  
Standard View ◽  
Value Of Knowledge ◽  
Capacity To Act

This chapter develops an intellectualist view of practical freedom according to which practical freedom is a capacity to act on our view of what we ought to do. This view is embodied in a judgement rather than in a belief about what we ought to do. Practical judgement is to be distinguished both from other truth-directed phenomena like believing and guessing and also from non-truth-directed states like imagining and intending. We make practical judgements where we are ignorant of what to do. We also make and act on such judgements where we think we know what to do. This fact suggests a non-standard view of the value of knowledge. It also enables us to defend an intellectualist account of freedom against voluntaristic alternatives.

Neural and Environmental Modulation of Motivation

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Influence ◽  
Environmental Intervention ◽  
Argument Proceeds ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Moral Difference ◽  
Do So

Interventions that modify a person’s motivations through chemically or physically influencing the brain seem morally objectionable, at least when they are performed nonconsensually. This chapter raises a puzzle for attempts to explain their objectionability. It first seeks to show that the objectionability of such interventions must be explained at least in part by reference to the sort of mental interference that they involve. It then argues that it is difficult to furnish an explanation of this sort. The difficulty is that these interventions seem no more objectionable, in terms of the kind of mental interference that they involve, than certain forms of environmental influence that many would regard as morally innocuous. The argument proceeds by comparing a particular neurointervention with a comparable environmental intervention. The author argues, first, that the two dominant explanations for the objectionability of the neurointervention apply equally to the environmental intervention, and second, that the descriptive difference between the environmental intervention and the neurointervention that most plausibly grounds the putative moral difference in fact fails to do so. The author concludes by presenting a trilemma that falls out of the argument.

Kant, Marginal Cases, and Moral Standing

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine M. Korsgaard
Keyword(s):  
Life Stage ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Standing ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Identity Problem ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Dead ◽  
Moral Difference

According to the marginal cases argument, there is no property that might justify making a moral difference between human beings and the other animals that is both uniquely and universally human. It is therefore “speciesist” to treat human beings differently just because we are human beings. While not challenging the conclusion, this chapter argues that the marginal cases argument is metaphysically misguided. It ignores the differences between a life stage and a kind, and between lacking a property and having it in a defective form. The chapter then argues for a view of moral standing that attributes it to the subject of a life conceived as an atemporal being, and shows how this view can resolve some familiar puzzles such as how death can be a loss to the person who has died, how we can wrong the dead, the “procreation asymmetry,” and the “non-identity problem.”

Gauge Field Theory in Natural Geometric Language

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Canarutto
Keyword(s):  
Particle Physics ◽  
Quantum Physics ◽  
Brst Symmetry ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Arbitrary Spin ◽  
Field Theories ◽  
Quantum Field Theories ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Spinor Bundle

This monograph addresses the need to clarify basic mathematical concepts at the crossroad between gravitation and quantum physics. Selected mathematical and theoretical topics are exposed within a not-too-short, integrated approach that exploits standard and non-standard notions in natural geometric language. The role of structure groups can be regarded as secondary even in the treatment of the gauge fields themselves. Two-spinors yield a partly original ‘minimal geometric data’ approach to Einstein-Cartan-Maxwell-Dirac fields. The gravitational field is jointly represented by a spinor connection and by a soldering form (a ‘tetrad’) valued in a vector bundle naturally constructed from the assumed 2-spinor bundle. We give a presentation of electroweak theory that dispenses with group-related notions, and we introduce a non-standard, natural extension of it. Also within the 2-spinor approach we present: a non-standard view of gauge freedom; a first-order Lagrangian theory of fields with arbitrary spin; an original treatment of Lie derivatives of spinors and spinor connections. Furthermore we introduce an original formulation of Lagrangian field theories based on covariant differentials, which works in the classical and quantum field theories alike and simplifies calculations. We offer a precise mathematical approach to quantum bundles and quantum fields, including ghosts, BRST symmetry and anti-fields, treating the geometry of quantum bundles and their jet prolongations in terms Frölicher's notion of smoothness. We propose an approach to quantum particle physics based on the notion of detector, and illustrate the basic scattering computations in that context.

Migrations and Macro-Regions in Times of Crises

2018 ◽  
pp. 20-36
Author(s):  
Dirk Hoerder
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
North China ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Forced Labor ◽  
Standard View ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Analysis ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Migration Systems ◽  
Actual Relationship

This essay analyzes the actual relationship between natural and manmade crises in longue-durée perspective and questions labels attached by master narrators. It challenges the standard view by differentiating sociologically between groups benefiting or suffering from migration. At the beginning, scales of spatial and temporal analysis are discussed as well as types of migration in relation to their potential impact. Next the elimination of mobility and crises in historiography and political theory regarding Greek and Roman societies are discussed. The following section approaches three distinct mass migrations in terms of push factors perceived, often justly so, as crises: the misnamed “peoples” migrations, migration after the “fall” of the Roman Empire, and settlement of the Yangtze Valley. Then forced labor mass migrations (slaveries) and the migrations in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and North China migration systems, self-decided under extreme economic and societal constraints, are analyzed. In conclusion present-day discourses are placed in context.

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