Again and again, I submit for your consideration that the Trolley problem is the problem.

Hi, Robert!

         I am piecing together your view of the Trolley Problem from bits and pieces found in your other posts, so just let me know if I’m not understanding you correctly. You seem to think that the problem is set up in such a way that you must agree to certain repugnant premises in order to even consider the moral dilemma. For example, the Trolley Problem requires that you imagine yourself driving a Trolley and requires you to choose one forked path that will result in running over either one or ten workers who are standing on the tracks. And within the context of the scenario, you are being placed in this situation without your consent (you don’t consent to being given the wheel of a Trolley with faulty brakes). Not only are you required to accept these repugnant premises in order to consider the dilemma, but it seems that the most moral thing to do is exactly to not drive a Trolley that has faulty brakes, but to instead empty it of passenger send it straight to the shop.

         In a word, you think the trolley problem is itself problematic because of the repugnant premises, lack of consent, and immorality that constitute the very setup and consideration of the dilemma. Is that right?

         Now, I have not personally seen the Trolley problem laid out in quite the way you have described. The typical statement of the Trolley problem is that you are witnessing a trolley speeding towards a junction because the driver has lost control. The junction lever is set so that the Trolley’s current path will lead it to collide with five unwary workers standing on the tracks, further down the way. You notice that you have easy access to the lever by which you may switch the path of the Trolley to a different track with one unwary worker standing on it, further down the way.

         In this typical statement of the scenario, you are not the driver, nor was the Trolley allowed to leave the station under the knowledge that it had faulty breaks. Suppose they broke while the Trolley was approaching the junction. Nor is it clear that your consent is needed for anything, since it is just that you happen to be close to a lever that could switch the tracks. I don’t think your concerns are relevant to the typical statement of the Trolley problem.