Notes from Lecture on Justice

Jul 23, 2024

Lecture on Justice: Trolley Problem, Moral Reasoning, and Utilitarianism

Introduction

  • Overview of the program's funding

Trolley Problem Scenario

  • Scenario 1: Trolley car hurdling toward five workers on track, brakes fail.
    • Option to turn onto a side track, sacrificing one worker to save five.
    • Poll Result: Majority willing to turn the trolley.

Discussion Points

  • Majority View: Better to kill one than five.
  • Example Reference: 9/11 plane crash in Pennsylvania
  • Minority Opinion: Avoid totalitarian mindset; better to avoid making an active choice to kill.

Alternate Trolley Scenario

  • Scenario 2: As an onlooker, push a fat man off a bridge to stop a trolley before hitting five workers.
    • Poll Result: Majority unwilling to push the fat man.
    • Reasons vary: Active choice, involving someone indirectly, difference in direct action.

Ethical Reasoning Types

  1. Consequentialist Reasoning
    • Morality based on consequences (e.g., greater good).
  2. Categorical Reasoning
    • Morality based on intrinsic quality of actions (e.g., Kantian ethics).

Utilitarianism

  • Jeremy Bentham's philosophy: Maximize utility (pleasure vs. pain).
  • Bentham's motto: Greatest good for the greatest number.
  • Case Study: Queen vs. Dudley and Stephens
    • Summary: Shipwrecked crew, 17-year-old cabin boy killed for survival.
    • Poll Result: Majority found it morally wrong, some defended necessity.

Arguments and Counter-Arguments

  • Defense: Survival necessity, future societal contribution.
  • Prosecution: Morality of taking a life, role of consent.

Moral Philosophy & Principles

  • Consequentialist Principles: Depends on outcomes.
  • Categorical Principles: Certain actions are intrinsically wrong.

Class Structure & Readings

  • Syllabus includes philosophers like Aristotle, John Locke, Emmanuel Kant, John Stuart Mill, etc.
  • Practical applications: equality, affirmative action, free speech, same-sex marriage, military conscription.
  • Risks: Personal and political
    • Personal Risks: Disrupts familiar beliefs
    • Political Risks: May lead to worse citizenship before better

The Evasion of Skepticism

  • Tendency to dismiss philosophical debates due to their unresolved nature.
  • Kant's stance: Skepticism can’t permanently settle restlessness of reason.
  • Aim: Awaken reason's restlessness.

Next Steps

  • Explore utilitarian moral theory further.
  • Read Bentham and John Stuart Mill.

Additional Elements

  • Warnings on interpreting moral philosophy.
  • Interactive opportunities at justiceharvard.org.