20 June 2011

Help: A question of morality (?)

Suppose you are driving a bus and suddenly, all controls went nuts -- from audio and video cables, door locks, to brakes. The only functioning and controllable part from your end is the steering wheel. Now, up ahead are 5 workers working on the road. And without any uncertainty, you know that the vehicle is going to hit these 5 workers and will definitely kill them instantly. Now, just a few meters on their right is another worker -- just 1 -- also unaware of what's happening in your bus. You can steer the bus to the right and avoid 5 workers but this will definitely hit the other worker.

Just for this question, let's assume that it's simply hitting the 5 workers, or turning your bus to the right and hit just 1 worker.

What will you do and why?

(This question -- and some few others that I'll be posting -- is based from the book Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do.)

3 comments:

sheng said...

Ang hirap nung tanong mo. But I think i'll hit the 5 others, am sure pag marami sila, may maging aware at sumigaw sa kanila para umiwas sa bus at makaligtas sa sakuna. yung isa, baka di niya alam, at siya ang sure deads pag tinamaan mo. Am I making sense here?

Angeli said...

rawlsian?

:)

eks said...

hehehe. sheng, i forgot to mention: the choice is simply killing the 5 or killing only 1? :-) really a difficult choice, no?

angeli, interesting. right now, ang napaglalaruan ko pa lang e yung consequentialist versus categorical imperative (kantian) arguments. really interesting question -- naisip ko tuloy yung 24/jack bauer. :-)