THE TROUBLE WITH TROLLEYOLOGY AND FATISM
The Trouble with Trolleyology and Fatism A weird week this week. What do YOU think about this new trolleyology dilemma? I joined a meeting with some budding philosophers to tell them something about my research relating to women phiilosophers, from ancient times to the present day. (Eighteen Amazing Women Philosophers) It should have been fun. I planned a section on the growth of feminism through its famous "three waves" and, for a lively group discussion, I picked Philippa Foot's "Trolley Problem" where you may choose to divert a runaway trolley from its track towards one person, to save five vulnerable people on the other track. There have been a few variants on Philippa Foot's work to look at other moral aspects presented by the problem. This includes the famous variant, The Fat Man. The Fat Man version supposes that, instead of diverting the trolley with a lever, you push a fat man in front of it to stop it. Many people are willing to ...