Ethics and Difficult Moral Decisions
These cases isolate competing reasons. Treat the abstraction as an aid to analysis, then ask what real-world context it omits. Some cases involve death or bodily autonomy.
Learning objectives
- Compare consequences, rights, intentions, and obligations.
- Explain a moral judgment without merely repeating a feeling.
- Identify when a variation changes an ethically relevant premise.
Recommended sequence
- Drowning Child — Begin with a low-cost rescue obligation.
- Trolley Problem — Compare redirecting a threat with allowing harm.
- Transplant Problem — Ask whether maximizing lives is sufficient.
- The Violinist — Separate a right to life from a right to another body.
- Experience Machine — Question a pleasure-only account of value.
- Utility Monster — Test aggregation against unequal capacities.
- Repugnant Conclusion — Compare population size with quality of life.
- Nonidentity Problem — Ask who is harmed when a decision changes who exists.
Read each article’s scenario first, write an initial answer, and then read the interpretations and sources. Spend as long as useful; there is no required schedule.
Reflection questions
- Does your theory explain both rescue duties and limits on sacrificing a person?
- Which differences between the trolley variants carry moral weight?
Final synthesis activity
Write a short policy memo about one new rescue case you devise. State your rule, apply it consistently to three variations, and explain the most troubling implication. Label your new scenario as your own exercise, not an established historical experiment.
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