Book: 'Would You Kill the Fat Man?' by David Edmonds
This provocatively titled tract opens with a burst of drama that proves philosophy can be exciting.
by David Edmonds
Princeton
3 stars
David Wilson
This provocatively titled tract opens with a burst of drama that proves philosophy can be exciting.
"This book is going to leave in its wake a litter of corpses and a trail of blood. Only one animal will suffer within its pages, but many humans will die." In particular, a heavyset man may fall from a footbridge, radio journalist David Edmonds writes.
Would You Kill the Fat Man? centres on a classic philosophy puzzle introduced by British philosopher Philippa Foot in 1967 and dramatically modified by American moralist Judith Thomson. In Thomson's version, a runaway train is barrelling towards five men tied to the track. Standing on a footbridge, you watch the evolving disaster. Beside you, a fat stranger lurks, posing a dilemma.
Push him off the bridge and he will land on the line and die, but his bulk will stop the train, saving five lives. What do you do?
In various forms, the dilemma dubbed "the trolley problem" - in a nod to the American word for tram - has preoccupied philosophers for decades, also ensnaring psychologists and neuroscientists.