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Michael Djerroud
Professor Landry
PP110
February 14, 2017
The trolley problem
The trolley problem introduces a very ethical debate and a great question about morality. The trolley
problem introduces a scenario in which you are standing next to trolley tracks and an out of control
trolley approaches. There are two paths for the trolley to go, one with five construction workers on it,
another track with just one. With the trolley coming so out of control it is bound to hit and kill the five
construction workers on the track it’s on now. Unless you flip a switch and it changes track, but now
heading towards and killing the one construction worker on the other track. What do you do? There are
many ways about going about this ethical problem and most answers would relate back to two
philosophical concepts, deontology and utilitarianism. Both of these concepts look at the trolley
problem from very different perspectives. Deontology in general in concerned with how the right comes
before the good. Utilitarianism on the other hand is concerned with how the good comes before the
right. With these two different philosophical approaches they both introduce very different reasoning
towards how someone would react in accordance to each of these two concepts.
Deontology is defined as “to evaluate actions according to the promotion of happiness or pleasure”
